


Amnesia

by Sketched_Ink



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesia, Angst, Could Be Canon, Crack, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Memory Loss, Mental Hospital, Mental Institutions, Sabriel Big Bang, Slash, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Supernatural - Freeform, Supernatural Elements, memories as dreams, possibly destiel later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-25 20:46:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3824515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sketched_Ink/pseuds/Sketched_Ink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Gabriel? Oh, he's a special case, most of the patients who end up in this place have a history, a progression from sanity to schizophrenia, but Gabriel? He just appeared outta nowhere one day in a motel room, no history, no nothing, only remembers his name. And somehow, he knows you. Care to tell me how, Sam?" Post S5E21 set in a Mental institution, slowburn Sabriel</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Occum's Razor

Gabriel clutched his legs closer to his chest, back to a pale plaster wall. The bed beneath him groaning in protest at the shift in body weight, it's springs creaking pathetically against the movement. Gabriel's eyes shifted nervously in front of him, scanning the bare room. Only four white walls, a barred window and a sturdy door stared back at him, and he closed his eyes in relief.

They weren't here yet.

Gabriel cherished these blissful moments of silence, where there were only the voices in his head, mumbling nonsense that he somehow understood, when there was nobody whispering treacherous words in his ears, nobody crying nonsense about heaven, a beautiful absence of accusatory words like traitor, coward and deserter.

It wasn't so bad in a psych ward really, Gabriel knew this was the best place for him, four white walls and a bed nestled amongst the terrified screams of other crazies from the rooms around him. Footsteps approaching his room alerted Gabriel of the time, there were only three times a day that people came near him, after all.

"Hello Gabriel, it's Melissa, time for breakfast!", an overly cheerful voice called out from behind the steel door, "I'm coming in, alright?". The tell-tale click of the lock announced her entrance, and a woman in her early fifties poked a smiling head round the door. Gabriel smiled back weakly in return; even though he was stuck in a place like this, he saw no reason to be cruel to people like Melissa, they were just doing their job after all. The carers were particularly nice to him, because he was different from the other patients.

Gabriel understood the fact that he was crazy. It was only a matter of time before his scrambled brain started up the daily dose of torture again, and he knew to savour these moments when he could almost pretend he was normal.

Gabriel reached out a tagged arm to take the offered tray from Melissa, maybe today he would say thank you. Perhaps today he would say something, anything. Maybe.

Gabriel was what people like Melissa called a 'special case'. Sure, he had all the usual problems to end up in a place like this; hallucinations, hearing things, swearing to your soul that you're something you're not. All the symptoms to get you a one way ticket to crazy-ville, diagnosed with schizophrenia. Yet still, he was more 'special' than most in a place like this, although almost everyone here thought themselves to be something they weren't; Jesus, the messiah, even Michael Jackson had passed through here a few times, but nobody seemed to be quite as weird as Gabriel.

All the other patients had back stories; progressions from sanity to the way they are now, but not Gabriel. Gabriel had nothing. The first thing he can remember was waking up in a motel room with no idea who he was, where he was, just noise. There had been a constant babble of voices, panicked voices, quiet voices, commanding voices, all clamouring for each others attention in a language that Gabriel knew he shouldn't be able to make sense of, but could, and he was only able to focus on one at a time to understand what they were all saying. Even then Gabriel had known he was crazy; nobody in their right mind hears voices.

There was one other thing he'd known from that first minute, and he still wasn't even sure it wasn't just another thing the crazy part of his brain had made up, but mere seconds after he'd woken up, when the voices in his head we're almost deafening, it had all faded out, into a high-pitched ringing noise. His vision had blurred into an impossibly bright white light, and an impossible, booming, whispering voice had said,

"You, celestial being, are an angel of The Lord. Your name is Gabriel".

Now, Gabriel could deal with that just being a thing his crazy mind made up, because loads of patients thought themselves to be something they weren't. But the really weird part, the part he hadn't even told his psychiatrist, was that the voice had continued,

"Enjoy your just desserts",

Gabriel's story was pretty much the same as everybody else's after that; soon after he'd regained consciousness, people found out that he was hearing things, so he got sent off to an asylum for the rest of his life, or until he got 'cured'. The hallucinations started not long after. But wherever they sent him, all the nurses continued to be baffled by his amnesia story; he was an unexplainable anomaly.

Even when he told them his name, or what he thought was his name, they couldn't find anyone listed with his description and name in any database in the world. Gabriel was an unexplainable John Doe, an impossible person. Even the motel owner swore he had no idea how Gabriel had gotten into the room, as it was meant to be empty, and there was no sign of a break in.

Gabriel could live with the constant babble in his head, he could live with being told his name by a white light in his head, but the one thing he dreaded above all else was his 'visitors'. His hallucinations haunted him incessantly. Ruthlessly taunting him, calling him out on things he hadn't done, accusing him of desertion, of cowardice and murder. Sometimes he just wanted them to shut up, and somewhere along the way, in the five-month period between him waking up and today, he'd shut up, and hadn't said a word to anyone since. Maybe he'd just had nothing to say, or maybe some childishly hopeful part of him figured that if he shut up, they would too.

Gabriel clutched the tray of food closer towards him, but looked down at it sickly. He'd lost all appetite for food since his admittance, and for the first few months, he'd barely eaten anything. Eventually, he'd lost so much weight that he was sat down in front of the head nurse, and told that if he didn't start eating, they would have to 'take action'.

In the end, it wasn't the threat that made Gabriel start eating more, it was the hopeful, doe-eyed looks the carers sent him every time they gave him a meal. Even now, weeks after he'd started eating what he was meant to, Melissa sent him an approving look as Gabriel dutifully shovelled cereal into his mouth, and he smiled a little around his plastic spoon in return.

"I bet she was pretty when she was younger", a voice called from one side of the room, "Don't you think? Could'a done that, huh", Gabriel's smile wavered slightly as he heard the tell-take fluttering that announced the arrival of one his 'visitors', and he set his spoon back into the bowl. It hadn't been thoughts of suicide via starvation that had made Gabriel stop eating, it was Lucifer.

Gabriel's file read, 'religious psychosis', which was the fancy way of saying he saw the devil, amongst other things. But of course, Gabriel couldn't just see a red cartoon dwarf with horns like the other crazies, no, he saw a blonde man with stubble and a smirk cruel enough to send a shiver down the spine of grown men. He'd explained this to his counsellor at first, which had been eagerly jotted down, but five months in, he'd stopped talking all together, and so, in turn, had his counselling sessions.

He was a lost cause. Gabriel's eyes wearily turned to his hallucination, a hard, deep-set resilience built up on days and weeks and months of torment evident in his stare. "Ooh, little brother's going to be fun today then, going to pretend to be all tough are we? Why bother, Gabriel? Everybody knows you're a traitor", Lucifer took a step towards him, "A coward", another step, "A disgusting little tumour of an angel who deserts his family in fear and the inability to suck it up and act like a man", by the end of his speech Lucifer was right in front of him, bending down so their faces were inches apart to intimidate the smaller man. Gabriel wanted to snarl and shout and deny knowledge of anything his hallucination said, because, come on, this was his mind accusing him of things he'd never heard of in his life. But Gabriel said nothing. He always said nothing.

"...riel? Gabriel, you okay honey?", Melissa's concerned voice slowly registered in Gabriel's head, and he twisted his body awkwardly so that he could peer past the devil to see the anxious woman behind him. Melissa smiled reassuringly, used to the unusual antics of patients here, twisting your torso to see her around another body that didn't happen to be there was hardly the weirdest thing she had seen in a place like this, "You put down your spoon five minutes ago", she glanced at the empty space of air Lucifer inhibited, before smiling sadly and reaching forward to take Gabriel's tray with the soggy cereal, knowing his habits well enough to know that he wouldn't eat any more now.

"I'll be back in a few hours to bring lunch. It's only one night now until you're able to go to the day room again", Gabriel smiled at her despite the fact that he knew he'd just be sent back here again. He never did get along well with other people, mainly because he never knew if they were real or not. He'd thought Michael was another patient for three days before he stood up, full of wrath, and declared Gabriel a vile traitor of an angel, and Gabriel had almost broken a carers arm in his terrified haste to get away from the hallucination. That was what ended him up in isolation this time.

He never understood his fear for these hallucinations, or how he knew their names before they told him them. His brain only registered that they could kill him, despite the fact that he knew they weren't real.

Melissa smiled once more, before leaving. It was just him and Lucifer now. And Lucifer knew it, "Up for a little family bonding time, little brother?", a dark look came over the devil's face, before he stage-muttered, "Let me see, what sort of torture can I think up for us today then?". Gabriel closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the babbling in his head. Anything was better than Lucifer.

•••••••

Sam Winchester waited in the lobby of the hospital. This was just another job, and according to Bobby, the apocalypse would continue without them. Bobby had insisted that the boys go check out a report from a source that said strange supernatural signs had been appearing in Boston, all within a five mile radius of this place. Dean still wasn't okay with the whole 'Surrender to Satan', idea, and Bobby had carted them both off in the impala to Boston to get their heads together before making a decision. Sam already knew what had to be done. Dean was posing as a janitor, and having picked the short straw, Sam played the only other open position of a carer.

"Mr Samuel Jones?", Sam's head whipped up at the sound of his name, before he hastily stood and wiped his hands on the back of his uniform slacks, offering one to the woman who had come to greet him. "Uh, it's Sam, but hi", he smiled back, she blushed slightly, shaking his hand, before continuing, "My name's Emily, I'm here to show you around, you'll be shown how to do Melissa's rounds on your first day", Sam's confusion must have shown in his face, because she smiled and added, "Melissa's the carer you'll be filling in for. She's on holiday", she smiled shyly, and lead him through a pair of double doors, guarded by a pair of security guards, into a large room full of tables and chairs.

"This is the day room, it's where the patients come during the day to socialise, watch TV and play games", Sam glanced across the room; people were milling around, talking to thin air, or staring blankly at the walls.

The room felt empty, despite the amount of people. Hollow almost, and Sam couldn't help but feel like he shouldn't be there. There was a distinctly uncomfortable feeling which only the people working there seemed able to detect; all the patients were off in their own worlds. Emily noticed his awkwardness, "don't worry, everyone feels like that on their first day, but you get used to it", she smiled and looked round at the patients, "They're harmless really, they just live inside their heads. The only reason they're in here is because society can't accept them". Sam glanced round the room again, slightly dubious, "Yeah, I suppose you're right", he mumbled eventually. Walking through the room, Sam had to remind himself that it was only a job. He couldn't understand why people wanted to do this, he supposed it was one of those jobs in which you felt you owed the system for whatever reason, and just got into it. Everybody had their reasons for being here, patients and carers alike.

Sam felt much better after they'd passed through the double doors on the other side of the room. The cold, hollow feeling left him, and the corridors just had that cool, clinical feeling Sam had learnt to associate with hospitals. Emily lead him through a maze of hallways, stopping every now and then to explain the important rooms, with a helpful synopsis or tip to go with each, "Dining hall - all the patients except the ones in quarantine eat here twice at day - breakfast is served in the rooms... Staff office - coffee machine tastes like crap, I bring instant and use the hot water... Medical room - any injuries, staff or patient, are treated here", Emily came to a stop outside another set of double doors, she peered in cautiously, before unlocking a series of bolts and locks and opening them.

"This is the high-security ward. Any patients deemed too dangerous to themselves or others are housed here, the only other way to get put in here is during isolation", Sam stuck his head around the door to get a good look at the corridor. It looked pretty much the same as all the others, the main difference was the amount of security in this hallway; each door was solid steel with a small barred window, there were thick metal bolts securing it to the wall, a guard sitting on a chair chewing gum and reading a newspaper, and a series of locks for added security.

A quiet muttering could be heard from some of the cells, and there was the occasional hysterical yell or shout. Goosebumps erupted across Sam's arms and up the back of his neck, and he quickly stepped away from the doors. His discomfort in the day room was a mere pinprick compared to the thick sense of danger apparent in the air of this corridor. Emily gave him a look of sympathy, "don't worry, almost everybody hates this place, patients and carers alike, there are only a few who are confident enough to look after these patients", she hastily shut, locked and bolted the doors behind them, giving one last uneasy glance into the empty-feeling corridor.

Emily was just leading Sam away from the corridor when something caught her eye behind them. Her face broke into a smile, "Melissa!", the nurse waved towards an elderly woman who had just turned the corner, and was heading towards them, "Melissa, this is Sam Jones, he's the nurse who'll be filling in for you whilst you're in the Caribbean", Sam winced at the title, carer sounded a little more masculine at least, "I was just showing him the high-security ward". Emily turned back to Sam, and explained, "Melissa here is part of the team who look after certain patients in this ward", the older woman offered a warm smile towards Sam, "Nice to meet you", Melissa extended a hand towards him, which was politely shaken, before switching her gaze to Emily, "I was just heading in actually, it's time to serve lunch", she looked down at the wrapped Twinkie in her other hand. "I just had to pop out to the staff kitchen to fetch something for pudding that Gabriel would eat", Emily chuckled knowingly, "Yeah, the guy refuses to eat sweets with less than 15 E number on the back".

Sam's interest perked, a person named Gabriel with a love for sweets? It sounded pretty darn familiar. Sam internally dismissed the idea and scolded himself for his assumption; there hadn't been any peculiar deaths in the area, and anyway, it couldn't be, that Gabriel was dead, Lucifer had killed him. Despite this, the hunter felt a prickle of hope that the trickster was alive, it felt a hell of a lot like a way out, a better way to defeat the devil.

It was just a wild fancy, Sam knew the archangel was dead. Although there had been no-one present in that lure hotel when Satan had killed the other archangel, Sam had hacked the police database as soon as the massacre had been found, and knew Gabriel's body had been found above an 'unexplainable' ashen print of three sets of wings. It was incredibly unlikely Lucifer had allowed his traitorous sibling to live, let alone been fooled by Gabriel into thinking that he had killed the other archangel when in fact he hadn't. Sam dismissed the idea, it was probably just another random guy with the same name who liked sweet things. That wasn't so impossible, in fact, it was the most likely explanation.

Emily said goodbye, and lead Sam off on the rest of his tour. "I think Melissa will be the one showing you how to do some rounds. Don't worry, although she is responsible for one or two patients in the high security ward, most of the people on her charge are regular patients", despite the fact that Emily's statement was meant to be reassuring, Sam couldn't help but cringe at the thought of having to set one foot inside those double doors, let alone speak to some of the people inside.

Sam finally finished his tour, and was lead back to the welcome room, "I hope I haven't put you off too much, Mr Jones", Emily said. "No, no, it was just what I expected actually", Sam lied, making a couple of dismissive gestures with his hands. Emily smiled once more, before handing him a slip of paper with a his hours on, and left with a goodbye. Sam looked down at the slip, he was expected to show up at 2pm tomorrow for his first shift, and as he'd been told, it was with Melissa. He gulped, Sam was sure he could blame his typical Winchester luck for that.

Crumpling up the note, he slipped in into the pocket of his slacks, reached for his phone, and dialled a number. Moments later, the line connected, "Hey Sammy, how was your first day with the crazies?", Dean's familiar voice drifted teasingly through the phone. Sam glanced around, before replying, "fine. I couldn't see anything suspicious on my first tour, but I'm coming in again at 2 tomorrow for my official first day, so I'll have a good look around then". A grunt of approval came down the line, "Sure thing Sammy, I'll be there later on to make my rounds, so I can double check anything weird you see", Sam nodded unconsciously, and said, "I'm heading back to the motel, see you in five".

Sam slipped his phone back into his jeans, whilst he pushed out of the front doors. If that place gave a person like him the heebie jeebies, he couldn't even comprehend the moral stamina of the other carers to make them want to work there.

Gabriel fiddled with the empty plastic wrapper of his dessert, the noisy crinkling just about able to block out some of Michael's righteous speech about cowardice and desertion. None of the counsellors had been able to figure out why his hallucinations constantly ranted on about faults that Gabriel swore he had no recollection of. Probably because he had no recollection of anything. The claims his visitors made against him were so ludicrous that none of his therapists were able to make any connections, and then Gabriel stopped talking.

The blonde man knew that someone like Melissa would be back soon to clear away his tray, and he would be left with no distractions from his visitors. When he'd first started to see Angels, he stood up against them, and spent hours denying their claims and arguing his innocence, but five months of never-ending accusations and spiteful words from an enemy that couldn't be touched or forced to shut up in any way did things to a man's resilience, and Gabriel had all but given up.

It was only a night until Gabriel was out of this cell and in a more social one. He didn't understand why they didn't just permanently move him here, when he was in a less secure dorm, he could never keep a hold on his temper, and would end up trying to get rid of his hallucinations any way he could. It was when he resorted to violence that he got isolated.

Gabriel placed his tray and Twinkie wrapper on the ground next to the door, and trudged back towards his bed. Michael could talk himself deaf for all he cared.

Despite that notion, Gabriel fell asleep to the peculiar feeling that he had missed something incredibly important today. That he'd been teetering on a pinnacle that would change his life irrevocably, and fallen the wrong way.

•••••••

PLEASE READ

I know many people skip AN's, but this is important, if you've read this far there are a few things you should know, first, BARE WITH, Gabriel is out of character for a reason that will soon be revealed for dramatic effect, and this story is far from over. Castiel will make an appearance later on in the story, and other characters will be added.

As far as updates go, I'm pretty much finished writing, I'm on the last chapter and couldn't wait to upload so thought i might as well start. I'll upload a new chapter every week, but will probably upload two this week because I like to give you guys something to chew through. This is also only the first chapter, and therefore the shortest, if you hold out, there's 50,000 words coming your way.


	2. Enter: Sam Winchester

Gabriel hated the day room. It felt as if he was the only patient able to deal with the fact that he had flown over the cuckoo's nest. He didn't feel at place amongst the other crazies, it wasn't discomfort, more the feeling that he didn't belong here, that he was somehow different that these people because of the knowledge of his mental state. They simply didn't know they were insane, and he did.

He scowled at Lucifer, who was currently fiddling with a young woman's plaits, twisting them into a hangman's noose, before grinning and waggling his eyebrows at Gabriel. Despite his inner battle of will against reacting to the devil's antics, Gabriel found it increasingly difficult to just frown and pretend it didn't bother him, especially during isolation, when satan was the only one bar his more angelically righteous brother who visited him. It was a constant fight between Gabriel's desire to ensure the safety of the other patients from his anger when he snapped, and his selfish desire not to be left with the two hallucinations. He just found it easier to distract himself when he wasn't alone.

Gabriel glanced over to a few nurses, they seemed to be especially excited about something today, and he didn't know if he should be intrigued enough to bother trying to figure out what it was. Despite this, he kept catching snippets of their conversation.

"..utterly gorgeous! Did you see that ass!.."

"..starting at 2, was he really that tall?.."

"..hope he's single.."

The women all giggled excitedly and glanced at the clock. Gabriel rolled his eyes, clearly they were talking about a new carer, who was 'hot' or whatever it is women call guys they find attractive. Lucifer caught his eye and made a rude gesture with his hands and mouth before winking at Gabriel. The smaller man sent him a withering glare before reluctantly allowing his eyes to flicker to the clock. The devil would take any opportunity to make lewd jokes at Gabriel's expense, regardless of the gender of his victims, no, especially if the other victim was a guy, because Lucifer knew it made him uncomfortable. The psychiatrists would have a field day if they found out this uncomfortable little secret, Gabriel didn't find it too hard to see them sitting him down to discuss his sexuality. He really didn't want to let his mind delve too deeply into why a figure of his own imagination was so comfortable with the idea of Gabriel with both sexes. That was a train of thought for a different time and a large bunch of counsellors.

It was almost 12, so the new guy would probably be arriving whilst they were in lunch. He supposed it must have been planned that way, to let this newbie get used to life in crazy-ville without all the nut jobs to put him off. Gabriel snorted. Lucifer stopped in his tracks at the sound, before making an over exaggerated congratulatory gesture consisting of lots of clapping and even the wiping away of a fake tear. Gabriel didn't even realise that it was because he'd made a noise until a nurse was excitedly fussing over him, smiling widely and making a massive scene over how that was an improvement. It wasn't. It was just that Gabriel had found something stupid enough to warrant a proper expression of his feelings.

"They all think you'll be singing by the end of the week Gabey", Lucifer stage-whispered as he leant over Gabriel's shoulder, "maybe you can start the choir for nut jobs", the nurse departed with one last adoring look towards the blonde man. Trying to ignore the literal devil on his shoulder, Gabriel smiled towards the nurses. There was no reason to make them realise he wasn't getting better. Letting them take comfort in the idea that he was improving wasn't hurting anyone.

A bell sounded, and a wave of carers swept into the room to lead the patients towards the dining hall. It was strange how this mental disease affects people differently. He was in no way more sane than the people who were so out of it they were being lead like drugged animals towards their food, but society found him more approachable, so they classed him as less crazy. The only difference Gabriel saw was that they were happy, content with their own worlds, whilst he was stuck here in this hell, plagued by his subconscious whilst his life wasted away unheard of. He would choose ignorance over this.

Gabriel accepted his lasagna with a half smile, but when a Twinkie packet hit his tray with a wink and a grin from a passing Melissa, he couldn't help but smile. As he sat down next to a swaying woman and another man babbling something about porcupines in the Bahamas, he felt a pang of guilt over his ungrateful thoughts towards this institution. He sometimes forgot that he actually had a lot to be thankful for, especially as he clutched the Twinkie underneath the table, and smiled as gratefully as he could towards his Nurse.

•••••••

"Now, as you know from your tour yesterday, I care for patients in and out of the high security ward", Melissa pressed another packet of what appeared to be sheets of toilet roll into Sam's already overflowing arms. She climbed down from her perch on top of a filing cabinet in the storage closet, and lead the new carer out of the room. As she locked the room, she gave Sam a fast-paced rundown of her rounds, "I normally visit my patients in the high-security ward before the others, simply because I like to have the peace of mind". She looked up at the tall man, who quickly nodded to show he'd been listening. Melissa gave him the impression that she was as kind as a mother, whilst also being twice as much of a person you didn't want to mess with.

She spoke whilst she walked, mainly telling Sam about the usual jobs a carer would do whilst in a room with a patient, but also helpful tips and comments about her charges, "I tend to tell them I'm coming in even before I've touched the door handle, I think it makes them feel more in control, as they know what's going to happen before it does. I find it's the little tricks that make a difference, but I'm sure you'll catch on soon enough".

They came to the familiar locked doors marking the start to the high-security ward, "I only have one patient in here currently. I used to have two, but one got released from isolation today, so we can visit him in a normal dorm, any questions?" Sam suddenly recalled the nurses conversation about a Gabriel being in one of these rooms, so this must be it. He made a mental note to get a good look at this patient whilst Melissa was doing her thing, just to clear any lingering doubt on their identity. How an archangel would end up in a high-security psych ward was beyond him though. It was far more likely to be a haunting or something similar. He figured despite that, now was as good a time as any to get an idea of what he and Dean might be up against, "Old buildings like these often have faulty wiring, flickering lights and such could affect the patients, do you find you have any problems like that?". Melissa stopped fiddling with her key ring and looked up in surprise, "not at all, I think we had all the wiring replaced a couple of years back, but even before then we didn't really have a problem". Sam nodded, "what about the heating? Felt any cold spots recently?", the nurse squinted up at him suspiciously, "why? You dabble in engineering as well as nursing?".

Sam laughed awkwardly, back tracking, "something like that, I just wanted to see if I could help in any other way, that's all", he improvised. Melissa's face broke into an understanding smile, "the bug got you already huh? People that work here often find themselves doing everything they can for the patients. I like to think that this place changes people for the better; makes them more giving", she turned her attention back to finding the right key to unlock the door. "But no, to answer your question, we're all up to US standard here, no faulty wiring, no dodgy heating. But if anything crops up, I'll be sure to send a word your way", Melissa finally located her key, unlocked the doors, and stepped into the corridor.

Just like the day before, Sam found himself shivering uncomfortably at the feeling in the corridor. He knew that if Dean could see him now, afraid to go into an empty hallway, he'd never hear the end of it. Melissa didn't even flinch as she stepped forward and headed off to one of the doors on the right hand side. There was no choice now, it was either follow her or look like a total idiot who's afraid of stepping into a corridor, plus Sam knew he needed to see if this was the trickster. Sam ducked his head so not to hit it on the low doorframe, and walked towards the door. He watched as the nurse first knocked, calmly stated that she was coming in, then unlocked the door. He gathered his courage, and as soon as Melissa had walked through the doorway, he stuck his head around the frame to get a good look at this 'Gabriel'.

A vacant eyed, semi-balding man in his late 50's, with short grey hair in a semicircle around the back of his head, turned his wizened gaze to look straight back at Sam. Even from that position five feet away, Sam could tell the man had no angelic powers whatsoever. A strange pang of disappointment passed through him, but he just chalked it up to the fact that it would've been useful to have an archangel on their side, even a slightly crazy one.

That, however, was not Gabriel. Sam watched as Melissa walked towards the guy with an open smile, and reached out to take an empty tray from the bed beside him, "how are you today sweetie? Feeling any better?", she cooed as she gathered up the cups from the floor next to the bed, "This is a new carer, his name is Sam, he's just going to refill the toilet roll in your bathroom, okay?". Figuring that was his cue, the tall carer made his way towards the adjoining room with an adjacent door. Pushing it open, he was greeted by a clean, tiled bathroom with a toilet, a sink, and a walk-in shower with a hospital-blue shower curtain.

Sam quickly ripped open a packet of toilet roll and stuffed it into the dispenser, all the while wondering why the hell he had to do the janitor duties if they hire a damn janitor? He paused in his efforts to jam the dispenser to ponder why he'd been so sure it was Gabriel. It would sure explain the supernatural omens, plus the fact that the hospital seemed to be clean of ghosts and demons, which really put a wrench in their plans. This was meant to be a simple job, but so far, it was turning out to be a simple pile of nothing.

Sam sighed. This was going to be a long day.

As it turned out, carer duties were a whole load of babysitting. You spent your time either checking on patients, bringing or taking away trays, taking people to the lunch room and talking soothingly to people who you didn't think understood you or who's eyes kept flickering around as if they could see multiple others in the room. It was a little frightening, but if he could pretend to be crazy, Sam sure as hell could look after them.

They had just finished in the room of their third patient, a middle-aged woman who continued to repeat the phrase, "oh! How nice to see you, when did you come in?", it was as if her brain was on a loop, and she couldn't remember anything further back than five seconds ago. Melissa, who had clearly done this before, just kept replying, "not too long ago Janice, we're just cleaning up, we'll be gone in just a minute". Sam didn't even need to be told to fill up the toilet roll holder by now, he just got sent the meaningful look, and off he'd slouch into the bathroom.

They were now making their way to another patient. Melissa assured him that this was one of the last, and gave his load a once-over, checking he still had enough toilet roll. If there was one thing Sam was sure of, they had enough toilet roll, they could see through the damn apocalypse with this much. Melissa went through her usual routine of announcing her presence, then opening the door. As she walked inside, Sam hung back, watching a pair of nurses hurry past him then burst into giggles around the corner. It baffled him how women seemed to think that sound couldn't travel round corners. He vaguely listened to Melissa's one-sided conversation with her charge, not really paying attention to what she was saying. He'd gotten used to patients either not talking or not listening by his third room, Sam figured it was just a side-effect from spending too much time in a place like this. "...hope lunch was alright today sweetie, did you enjoy your pudding? You know, I'm pretty confident that everyone else knows I'm slipping you treats, but you've got everyone here wrapped around your little finger with that innocent charm you have working there, Gabriel".

Sam's eyes focused on the name label in the door at the same time as Melissa spoke it aloud. Trying to quench the newly rekindled sense of anticipation that had crawled into his gut, Sam whirled round to face into the room, unlikeliness currently set aside. Sam finally located a smaller figure sitting on a bed towards the back of the room.

A pair of startled, amber eyes framed by a head of slightly curling honey-blonde hair looked up at Sam in shock. The taller man's jaw dropped. This was impossible. Sure, he'd hoped, but he'd never truly expected it! Melissa, oblivious of the conflict sparking between the two men, smiled, and held out a hand to initiate an introduction, "Gabriel, this is a new carer here, I wanted to introduce you two because he'll be taking over from me whilst I'm on holiday. His name is-".

"Sam?", Gabriel couldn't understand it, this was clearly one of his hallucinations; he'd known his name after all, but how, and why, was Melissa introducing him to a new figment of his imagination cooked up by his crazy brain?

"Gabriel?", Melissa breathed, "you just spoke". Gabriel's eyes widened even more, before he looked down at his lap awkwardly. "No, no, it's brilliant!", she beamed, looking between her patient and the new carer, "clearly, meeting somebody that you used to know would improve your condition, but we'd never been able to find anybody!" The nurse seemed to process what she'd just said, "you two know each other?" Sam gaped at both of them, how was he meant to explain this?

Gabriel coughed to try and clear his throat. He was croaky from months of disuse, but also unable to take his eyes off Sam. He was so familiar, just like Lucifer and Michael had seemed, but somehow, he was real? "I, uh, read the name on his uniform", Gabriel rasped, "we've never met". Melissa's head switched between both men quickly, trying to process this unusual turn of events, "Okay honey, I'm just going to talk to Sam outside for a minute, this is a different situation now, and we need to talk about how we're going to deal with it. Yell if you need one of us, alright?".

Gabriel watched the door close behind the flustered carers, and tried to catch hold of his thoughts. Somehow, he knew this man, and somehow, this man actually existed, unlike his usual hallucinations.

The familiar rustling that announced the arrival of one of his visitors caught his attention, "speak of the devil, huh", he muttered. Lucifer smirked, "One word and they just can't shut you up", he grinned, "So, what do you think of Doctor Sexy out there then? Did he live up to your expectations?", Gabriel opened his mouth to fire back a witty reply, but fell short. He wished he could chalk up his hesitation to the fact that he hadn't spoken in an age, but that wasn't what stopped him, and Lucifer knew it too, which was the downside of talking to a part of your mind; they always knew what you were thinking.

"Oh father, you actually do? You actually find that mud monkey attractive, don't you?", Gabriel saw no reason to dignify that question with an answer, the impossible battle not looking too appealing. However, Lucifer wasn't done yet, "you've only seen him for five minutes, and what, you're already harbouring a crush? What are you, a thirteen year old girl?", the smaller man turned over in his bunk, already hating the doubt the devil had burrowed into his mind. He'd never been very self-confident, spending time in a mental institution tended to knock your security a tad, but Gabriel didn't even need Lucifers comments to see that he had no chance. What carer in their right mind would even consider pursuing a relationship with a mental patient?

•••••••

Sam found himself being quickly bundled out of the door, his mind still trying to catch up with what was happening. This was Gabriel, but somehow, it wasn't the Gabriel he'd known. This Gabriel was beaten down and trampled on, not the cocky, selfish prick he'd gotten to know. What in heaven and hell could have happened to the archangel to turn him into the shell of a man in the room behind them?

Melissa shut the door, and turned to face Sam, "okay, cut the bull, are you seriously telling me that you have never met the man in the room behind me? This is a guy with insomnia who hasn't said a word for two months, let me remind you, and he ends his eight weeks of silence with the name of a guy he's never met before?", the nurse folded her hands in front of her chest. Sam decided to stick to Gabriel's story, "I swear, I've never seen the guy before in my life! Are you sure he didn't just read the name on my shirt? Maybe he knew a Sam, or-", he finally caught up with what Melissa had just told him, "did you just say insomnia?".

The woman sighed, "Gabriel has been diagnosed with amnesia and a religious psychosis. He says he hears voices". Sam was floored. He'd never really considered what to do if Gabriel really had gone round the bend, and he found himself feeling a little lost at the new information, "so, what's his story?", Sam figured that if he knew as much as possible about this new Gabriel, he could figure out what was going on .

Melissa relaxed her arms, and scratched the back of her neck thoughtfully, "Gabriel's been here for roughly five months, but he's always been a bit of an anomaly within the patients", she said, "when we got the call from the cops saying they thought they had a person in their holding cell who belonged here, I was one if the carers who set off in the van to collect him, but they didn't really give out any details about the situation, so when we arrived, we were a bit stunned to say the least". That caught Sam's attention; it wasn't too hard to imagine an archangel who'd lost his memory to cause a bit if a scene. Melissa continued, "as it turned out, Gabriel had woken up not two hours prior to an empty motel room with no memories and a bunch of voices crying out about angels and demons and the apocalypse, and although that's strange, it's not the most peculiar thing about the situation", she leant in a bit closer, lowering her voice, "what was really weird was that when we asked him what he could remember, he said he couldn't remember anything, but that he knew what his name was. When we asked how that was, he refused to say, and it took a lot of coaxing to get him to open up. He claimed a different voice had told him his name was Gabriel, but when we searched that name with his description, we couldn't find a single Gabriel like him who was missing or even recorded absent in the whole world". Melissa sent Sam a baffled smile, "and we haven't been able to find one thing on him since, nobodies come forward. Ergo, he's either an impossible person, or isn't who he thinks he is. I personally think it's probably the latter".

It was all coming together in Sam's head; he had to call Dean. This was massive. If they had the destructive force of an archangel, it could tip the scales in their favour in the apocalypse, their only problem was that the archangel in question wasn't exactly in fighting shape.

Melissa sent a careful look towards the door, and ran a hand through her hair in stress, "Look, Sam, I've never seen such an improvement in Gabriel since he's been here, and I know it's asking a lot, but could you perhaps spend a little time with him whilst I'm away? I don't often get to see people walk out of here, but he deserves a life, and you seem to bring a little back to him". She smiled awkwardly, before continuing, "maybe he did know a Sam, or perhaps even a guy who looked like you, but Gabriel has been going steadily downhill since I've known him. I guess I'm attached, but I would really appreciate it if you'd just talk to him". Sam nodded blankly, he really needed to call Dean. Like, right now.

"I'll try, Melissa", he said seriously, and the look on her face as she took in his words was well-worth the twist of guilt in his gut. "Look, can I go to the toilet a second? I'll be right back", Melissa nodded her consent, "sure, don't worry about finding me after, just head right on in and try and talk to Gabriel, okay?", Sam almost ran towards the door.

Raphael sat in a red cushioned armchair in a wealthy politician's heaven. He particularly liked this heaven. It felt formal and sophisticated; two things the archangel valued very highly, unlike lateness. Raphael abhorred lateness.

A quiet ruffle of feathers finally announced his subordinate's arrival, "apologies for my tardiness, sir", the angel bowed. The archangel waved a hand to signal the other to straighten up and get on with it. The subordinate cleared her throat, before continuing, "I investigated that strange concentration of angelic energy in the City of Boston, as you requested, sir, and have made a rather startling discovery", the angel shifted on her feet, before continuing, "despite the archangelic nature of the power, and our suspicions that the concentration of energy was a tell of Lucifer's base, it seems to have actually originated from another archangel".

Raphael frowned. There were only two other archangels apart from himself and Lucifer, and one of those angels is presumed dead, "I would be very surprised if Michael was spending time in a city in America, whilst he has most of heaven at his disposal", the archangel replied drearily.

"It's not Michael's grace, sir", that caught Raphael's attention. "Are you completely sure, Hester?", he asked sharply.

The angel nodded, "I would recognise Gabriel's grace anywhere, sir. I've narrowed his location down to a one-mile radius of a building; the Saint Peter mental hospital. I believe the traitor is hiding there,". Raphael sat back in his chair thoughtfully, this would be the perfect opportunity to make an example of him, to prevent other angels from abandoning their posts at such a crucial time. "Excellent. Scout out the building and report your findings back to me". Hester nodded, and vanished. Raphael settled down into the armchair, it was high time that deserter received his two thousand year due reprimand.

•••••••


	3. Endlessness

"What?! Fetch the holy oil, Sammy, I'm gonna fry myself a douchebag archangel!" Sam held the receiver away from his ear so he didn't deafen himself with Dean's outraged squawking. He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, trying to keep a hold of his temper. Turned out, the older Winchester could keep a grudge, "Dean, I know you two haven't gotten along in the past-", a snort travelled down the receiver, "Haven't gotten along? The guy Killed me about a thousand times", "-but think about it, if we have an archangel bomb in our hands, we have a much better chance at beating the other two problems".

There were only two beings Dean hated more than Gabriel, and his hatred for Lucifer and Michael were Sam's best bet at convincing him to let the archangel live, "Besides, he's not the Gabriel we knew, he's different, more vulnerable. It'd be like killing an innocent man because he can't remember a thing he's done".

Silence came from the other end of the receiver, and Sam knew he'd won. Thank god, he'd been on the phone for half an hour. Eventually, Dean managed to grumble a reply, "Fine", he snarled, "I guess Bobby was right about the strange signs then, but I don't like it, and the first move he makes against us I'm getting an express delivery order of six wings, extra crispy".

The line went dead, and Sam shut his phone, frowning. Now posed a new, more challenging question; how in heaven and hell was he meant to make Gabriel remember him? Or anything at all for that matter.

Sam turned and walked back into the faculty, before making his way to Gabriel's room. There, he just stopped and frowned at the door handle, trying to formulate his words. Sam had never struggled to open a door so much in his life. The key hole looked as if it was mocking him; a gaping empty mouth that would seal his fate. Maybe he was being a tad melodramatic, but it sure felt as if he was about to embark on an impossible mission, which, he supposed, he might be. Melissa's pleading face drifted back into Sam's mind, and he knew what he was going to do. Damn his sappiness. How was he meant to tell a broken man suffering from memory loss that he was the archangel Gabriel and that he was needed to help stop the apocalypse? Sam snorted, he'd probably end up under lock and key right next to Gabriel if he tried anything like that. It was probably best to take it slow, despite this, he decided that telling the blonde any lies about his past would probably do more harm than good.

The talk man followed through the familiar procedure of knocking and announcing his impending entrance before unlocking and opening the door.

Gabriel watched the irritatingly familiar man awkwardly fit his tall figure into the room through the too-small door frame, it would've been funny if Gabriel could figure out why this guy was so damn familiar! The blonde man watched the other grab a chair from the table near the door and sit down in it opposite the bed with narrowed eyes. The only thing he could come up to explain this situation was that his brain had hallucinated both Sam and Melissa in a futile attempt at fooling him. If that was so, Gabriel was pretty sure he'd just escalated to a whole new degree of crazy.

Sam cleared his throat uncomfortably, before fixing his dark eyes right onto Gabriel's amber ones, "I'm pretty sure by now you've figured out that you used to know me". Gabriel felt like a complete idiot. That was the most painfully obvious explanation to this situation, and, of course, he'd overlooked it. The smaller man was almost certain his face had flushed red, and the other man had clearly noticed. Sam's eyebrows scrunched together, and Gabriel knew he shouldn't have found it adorable, because he clearly needed to get his priorities straight. Sam chuckled, and tried again, "Ah, well, okay. Let's start again, my name is Sam Winchester, your name is Gabriel, and we used to know each other".

It was all starting to make sense. If Gabriel had known this man, then it would stand to reason that he'd remember his name, so either this guy really was who he said he was, or Gabriel's crazy was getting better at fooling him, "So, you're definitely not just another hallucination then?", he croaked. His voice was getting stronger, but it was no where near as strong as it used to be, and he could feel it scraping his throat from misuse.

Sam frowned. Melissa hadn't said anything about hallucinations, "Not that I know of. Uh, what kind of hallucinations are we talking about?", he asked carefully. Gabriel rubbed a hand over his hospital-issued slacks, picking at a loose thread, not meeting the other man's eyes as he spoke, "I see the devil, and the archangel Michael", he rose his amber eyes to bore into the set opposite him, "But it's not just a red cartoon guy with horns and a forked tail, it's a psychotic blonde man with a rotting face", he muttered. Sam forced himself not to grin with excitement, not only would it be entirely inappropriate, but the devil was certainly nothing to laugh about. He could barely contain his excitement though; this meant Gabriel wasn't completely crazy! Sure, he heard voices, but at least his hallucinations had a link to his past, not that the nurses would realise though; no one in their right mind would assume that hallucinations featuring the devil could be linked to the patients past. It was Gabriel's luck that Sam happened to have an extremely talented, yet slightly grumpy, semi-retired hunter to help him, come to think of it, the angel may have had a helping hand from the big man upstairs. Sam frowned, that was definitely a thought to consider.

He turned his attention back to the man on the bed , "Okay", Sam said calmly, "That's okay, we can work with that. I'm pretty sure I can help you". Gabriel's eyes flickered up hopefully, "You're serious? You think you can help me?", he asked tentatively. It wasn't second nature for Gabriel to be so trusting; he was a cynic a heart for god's sake, but something about this man just demanded trust, no matter how unwilling to comply the blonde's brain was.

"Definitely. I used to know you, and although I can't tell you how, because I think it could be negative to the restoration of your memories", Sam improvised, "But I will work with you to help you remember, there's one catch though, you have to promise to keep talking".

Gabriel couldn't remember how long it had been since he's felt this hopeful and he was sure that his grin was bordering on stupid, but for the first time since he could remember, everything actually seemed to be looking up. He should've known it wouldn't last.

•••••••

The first thing Gabriel should have noticed was that his surroundings were far too ordinary to be real, the second was that there was an incredibly strong sense of déjà vu just under the surface of his mind, but in his state of confusion, he realised neither. He figured that he had to be in someone's house, judging by the framed photos on the wall and nicely furnished living room. In his dream-state, Gabriel found himself striding purposefully through the room and up a set of stairs; he seemed to be somehow moving without his conscious mind's consent, it was like there was another person inside who was in control. Still dazed, Gabriel watched through his own eyes as his body moved around the room, as if it was looking for something.

The not-Gabriel moved towards the window, and pulled back the curtain, allowing the man to look down at the driveway outside. He watched as a car drove up through the woods, and continued to look as an angry man got out and slammed the door shut behind him. Gabriel watched his reflection in the windowpane as his lips involuntarily curled up into a rather vindictive grin, and an uneasy, twist of worry curled in his stomach.

His body stepped back, and listened to whatever the man was getting from downstairs, before the front door slammed as the man left again. Gabriel felt himself sit down on the double bed in the middle of the room, opposite the TV, and snapped his fingers. To his shock, a remote control appeared in one hand, and a chocolate bar in the other. Gabriel watched as his body reclined against the headboard, took a bite of chocolate, and switched on the TV.

On screen, there was a video of the angry man walking through the forest outside his house, and Gabriel realised that this was a live-feed. The blonde man couldn't help but feel uncomfortably like despite the way this dream was getting weirder and weirder, for some reason it was so damn acceptable, as if this was a totally normal thing to do. He watched as his body put down the remote, rubbed his hands together with a content sigh then clicked his fingers. It took Gabriel all of one second to figure out what it had done.

The man onscreen swore in a rather high-pitched voice before dropping his gun and sprinting back in the house's direction. Despite his growing sense of sickness, Gabriel strained to see what was chasing the man behind the chuckling body he was trapped in. The man was clearly terrified, and Gabriel felt like he was going to throw up. What kind of sick person dreams a dream like this? Gabriel's disgust didn't drop a bit as the camera's viewpoint switched to reveal a very realistic cartoon hulk that was at least 5 meters high chasing the stumbling man towards his house.

His body's laughter only grew in volume as the guy ran over his drive and into the house. Gabriel heard the door slam and lock, before a terrified shriek carried upstairs. He just caught the sound of feet on the stairs before a crash shook the whole house. The TV revealed that the hulk had just crashed through the man's front door, and was charging up the stairs after him. Gabriel realised that the man was heading straight towards them just before he stumbled into the bedroom and slammed the door shut behind him.

The man looked around the room in panic, then started to shove a wooden dresser in front of the entrance whilst Gabriel's body snapped another chocolate bar into existence, discarding the other wrapper carelessly. The man clearly couldn't see him, because as soon as he'd finished blocking the door, he ran to the window and thrust open the blinds, looking for a way out. In the corridor, loud, thumping footsteps could be heard getting louder. The man cowered in a corner on the other side of the bed from the door. By now, tears had formed thick streams down his face, and he appeared to be praying.

That seemed to stop Gabriel's body from laughing for some reason, and just as he thought his body had found some compassion, he heard himself hiss, "nobody's listening, idiot. Nobody cares about your pathetic little prayer, and even if they did hear you, why would anybody answer a scumbag like you?". The poor guy, who appeared to have been deaf to Gabriel's laughter before shot up and pressed his body back against the wall behind him, "W-who's there?", he shouted, his voice thick from crying. When there was no answer he continued, "H-help me you asshole!", the man yelled hysterically before crying out again as the door smashed in. Gabriel watched in disgust as he sat back and did nothing. Predictably, the hulk crashed through the door and started ripping the screaming man apart, limb from limb. The worst part was that Gabriel couldn't shut his eyes, no matter how hard he tried.

After what felt like years, but what was more likely only a couple of minutes, the hulk shimmered before fading away. The blonde's body finally got up, stretched and chucked the empty wrapper of its candy bar aside, but just before it made it to the door, Gabriel's surroundings faded to black. He didn't know whether to be grateful or terrified. He felt bodiless, like a unfathomable ball of energy with no borders or boundaries, and for the first time, he felt like he'd gone his whole five months of existence without truly ever being natural, and not even knowing it, which was impossible. But in the unending darkness, for the first time ever, Gabriel felt like this was what he was meant to be.

"Amazing, isn't it?", an incredibly familiar voice drifted to him through the darkness. "It's as if you spent your whole life comfortable with what you were given, and then realised you were owed so much more", the voice seemed to be all around Gabriel, thickening the atmosphere and almost resonating inside him.

Gabriel knew that voice, it was as familiar to him as his own palm, yet for some reason, he couldn't figure out who it belonged to, "Who are you?", he growled defensively; whoever it was, this voice felt dangerous.

Gabriel listened in fascination as his voice appeared to fill the air just as the other voice had. A horribly familiar chuckling sent a shiver of dread straight through Gabriel, but he still couldn't place it's owner. It didn't take long for the chuckling to die down and the voice to reply, "Oh you know, feather brain, you just can't accept it yet. But that's okay, we've got plenty of time. More importantly, what did you think of the little vision I sent you? Marvellous work, don'tcha' think?".

"That was your fault?", Gabriel spat every ounce of his disgust into the sentence. The chuckling just started up again, "Yes, yes it was. Great show right? The dick really got what was coming to him", the voice answered.

"You're sick", Gabriel replied, and the chuckling stopped abruptly. Just as Gabriel thought he'd shut it up, it answered, "Yes", the voice replied thoughtfully, "You're right, but the funny thing is", a more mischievous tone crept in, "you don't even realise just how right you are".

Gabriel woke up covered in cold sweat in a pitch-black room. The glowing, wire-protected clock on the nightstand blinking 2.47 am. He sunk back into his damp sheets, mind whirling from his nightmare.

Gabriel lay there for the rest of the night, unable to fall asleep, because he was too scared to dream.

•••••••

Sam got back to the motel to find his brother staring grumpily at the door, with a glass of what seemed to be whiskey in his hand, and the remains of a takeout on the table in front of him, "So", Dean grumbled, "Bobby was right and there is a case here then". Sam sighed and ran a hand through his hair in aspiration, "It's not a case, Dean, it's more like, uh, a rescue mission". Dean snorted and took a large gulp of the gold liquid, "Why are we rescuing him? Can't we just leave him to rot and figure out a less angelic way of dealing with tweedle dumb and tweedle dee?", he growled. Sam should have known his brother was going to be difficult. He sat down opposite the slightly-intoxicated man, "You know he's our best shot. Can you really condemn an innocent guy to life in that place? He's not even that crazy!", Sam leant forward over the table, "I spoke to him, and he told me that his hallucinations are of Lucifer and Michael, I think that he's having something like a backwash of memories, and his brain is dealing with them by turning them into hallucinations".

"So you're going to be Doctor Phil and cure him then?", Dean muttered, "How do you know he'll help us afterwards?". It was like talking to a brick wall.

Sam decided it was time to get out the big guns, "Look. The guy sacrificed himself to save us, he's in team free will - even if he's on the commemorations list".

"He doesn't sound so dead to me ", Dean grumbled into his glass, and continued, "How did he manage that, by the way? I thought Lucifer killed him?". Sam shrugged, "No clue. I don't think he remembers it at all, it was pure luck that I looked familiar enough for him to recollect my name; I don't think the poor guy remembers anything".

Dean grunted again, before meeting his brothers eyes seriously, "I trust you, Sammy. So although I'm not sure about what you're doing, I'm gonna trust you to follow your instincts, and sort whatever this is-", he made a vague waving gesture, "-Out". Sam nodded, before getting up to fix himself a sandwich.

It had just passed six AM when Sam sleepily pressed his card onto the signing in machine. For the third time since he'd woken up, he cursed Dean and his stupid good luck as far back into hell as he could. Stupid dumb luck; what he would give to be sleeping in the motel room whilst his brother had to scrape himself out of bed and go care for a load of crazies. But as usual, the lucky asshole got the easy route, and Sam found himself rubbing his eyes to try and stay awake. The tall man yawned, before scratching his head and making his way towards the kitchen to pick up the breakfast trays.

Sam planned his route specifically so that he'd visit Gabriel's room last, and hopefully be able to stop and counsel for half an hour before continuing with his jobs. He'd just dropped off a tray to a madly grinning woman babbling about fairies, (who he'd smiled and nodded encouragingly to in an effort not to upset her, there were obviously no such things as fairies anyway), when the tall man found himself staring at the name label, 'Gabriel'.

He knocked, and called out, "Gabriel? It's Sam, I'm coming in, Kay?", before unlocking and pushing open the door. Predictably, the blonde man was sitting on his bed, but Sam immediately noticed he looked tired; the dark smudges under his eyes particularly prominent against his pale skin. Gabriel looked up to meet Sam's stare, before breaking out a weak smile. Sam felt his heart twist in sympathy and a touch of wrongness, as if somewhere inside he knew it was wrong to see such a powerful being in this position.

"Hi Sam, I'm still talking, see?", the smaller man grinned in a poor attempt at humour. "Good to know, how are you feeling?", Sam asked, sitting down in his chair, a bit stuck at conversation openers with a mental patient. "Fine. Not really different from yesterday", Gabriel's eyes darted to the ground, then back to him, and Sam had been in this line of work long enough to tell when someone was lying. "You look tired", he pressed, and Gabriel seemed to shrink into his already baggy clothes, "I had a nightmare, that's all", he said in an attempt at blaseness. Sam's interest peaked; if he was right, and Gabriel's psychosis was caused by his memories, it was possible that his dreams could be linked as well, "What was it about?", he asked.

Gabriel looked down awkwardly, his eyebrows scrunched together, and spoke in a low voice, "It, um, it's really bad", he paused, before clarifying, "Not bad in scary, bad as in sick", Sam nodded encouragingly, "I've seen and heard a lot, I'm pretty sure one nightmare won't scare me off ". The blonde man swallowed, then retold his dream. By the time he was finished, Sam was amazed at how detailed his memories were. He didn't need to try and place the meaning of the nightmare, it was obviously his memory of the bait-killing he'd made to lure Sam and his brother into TV land. If Sam was to query anything, it would be the archangel's feelings looking back without his memories, why wasn't he approving of his past actions, or at least understanding them? It was almost like this Gabriel was a different man from the one before.

Sam didn't realise Gabriel was waiting for his analysis until the blonde cleared his throat. "Um", Sam's mind was a whirlwind; how much should he tell Gabriel? Should he even tell him anything? Should he lie? He settled on a question, "Why do you think it was a bad dream?". If Sam couldn't tell Gabriel anything, he could at least try to understand his feelings about his dream. The smaller man's frown deepened, "What are you talking about? Of course it was a bad dream! I watched myself let a guy get torn apart- no, worse, I made something tear a guy apart. How is that not a nightmare? I felt like I was going to throw up the whole time!", he said indignantly, before pausing and taking a breath to calm himself down, "I was trapped inside my own body", he explained, "Whilst I was in there, I felt like I was a monster. What kind of person dreams up something like that, whilst they sit back and watch?". Sam felt like he was starting to understand, "So, the reason why it was so bad was because you don't like the person you were?". Gabriel nodded, before freezing. He trained a pair of fearfully suspicious amber eyes on Sam's, and spoke in a low voice, "What do you mean person I was? Was I like that before I lost my memory?", for the second time that day, Gabriel's skin took on a green tinge.

Shit, Sam thought. This was so not good. Smooth move there, genius, he scolded silently. He cursed his decision to tell the angel the truth and only the truth. "...I don't know how to answer that", he muttered, "You are very different to the person you were". Gabriel brought up a hand to rub his eyes, his thoughts in turmoil, "Are you trying to say that I actually did that? How is that possible?", he said in a voice so quiet Sam would have been sure he'd imagined if it hadn't been for the smaller man's lips moving, "do you mean like a metaphor?", Gabriel looked up, "I don't want to be that person", he growled.

Sam shifted in his seat, not knowing what to say, and settling on listening. "Are you saying that wasn't a metaphor? I've killed people?", Gabriel was clearly still trying to take it in, "I was a monster?". Sam swallowed uncomfortably, knowing he had to say something - leaving a mental patient in a state like this would be wrong. "I thought so too", Gabriel lifted his head to give Sam a hopeless look, but the tall man continued, "But you stuck around, did some things that eventually made me reconsider, and you changed my mind. In the end, you actually saved a load of people's lives, including mine, and sacrificed something incredibly precious for a bunch of people, including me and my brother", Gabriel listened confusion and curiosity, the twisted self-image of himself unwinding slightly. For some reason, Gabriel trusted this guy implicitly. Who was Sam?

Sam didn't really want to give even that much of Gabriel's unknown past away, but if he wanted to keep his promise of no lies, he hadn't really had a choice.

The blonde thought over what Sam had just told him, examining each clue carefully, before speaking without raising his head, "So, your saying I was a bad person, but I redeemed myself?". Sam shook his head, "You were never a bad person, Gabriel, you were just doing what you saw to be right; handing out punishments to the people you thought deserved it", he answered. Sam stretched forward, attempting to see the blonde's expression. He needed to know what the man opposite him was thinking; he was worried about Gabriel's image of himself, and the consequent self loathing. He knew better than anyone how unhealthy that could be. To his surprise, Sam found Gabriel grinning like an idiot at the sheets beneath him. If he had to put a name on the emotion, he would say Gabriel looked relieved.

The smaller man let his shoulders relax, and he felt his fondness and respect for Sam grow slightly. It wasn't hard for him to see himself sacrificing something to save Sam, the man was so genuine. It almost didn't seem fair for someone to look like that and have the personality to boot, "Thank you, Sammy", he smiled eventually. Sam sat back, returning the look. He didn't even notice the former trickster's use of his nickname.

"Don't mention it".

Dean's raucous laughter rattled down the phone line, "S-so your telling me you had a chick-flick moment with the douche bag archangel?", he gasped. Sam kicked the low wall in front of him in irritation, "I was being nice! The guy has serious self-esteem issues!" He snarled defensively, as his brother let loose another burst of laughter, and Sam found himself waiting for the snorting from the other end to calm down enough to reply. "You were never a bad person Gabriel", Dean mocked in a high-pitched voice, before delving back into hysterics.

Sam growled, "The core of counselling is supporting the person who needs it. I've made progress! What have you done today except lie in and eat takeout?", he demanded. "I got this hot waitresses number", Dean answered, before realising what Sam had just said, "What kind of progress are we talking about?", he asked casually. Sam straightened up, determined to keep this new topic, "You remember what I told you last night about his memory back-flow?", Dean muttered an affirmative, "Well, he had a dream about that hulk he set on the guy before we were chucked into that game of his. But get this, the way he spoke of it made it sound like he had re-lived the experience". Dean caught on, "So your saying that he's starting to remember things". Sam nodded enthusiastically, "Exactly, which means he's getting better". "Good work, Sammy", his brother praised, "I've gotta go, but talk later", and Dean hung up.

"Don't call me Sammy", he growled into the cut-off line. It was quiet outside the hospital. The building was placed just outside the outskirts of Boston, close enough to civilisation that people could access the facilities, but far enough away that they could politely pretend it didn't exist. Sam looked up at the dull grey building. It seemed hollow, the barred windows giving the hospital a prison-like feel, whilst the concrete building blended well with the slate-grey sky. The hospital never had been very sunny. Sam knew just by staying there for a day that the place sapped the life out of its inhabitants.

He found his thoughts turning to Gabriel. The difference between this man and the trickster was astounding, and even more surprising was the archangel's attitude towards his past actions. Sam wondered if this was what Gabriel had used to be like, before the whole trickster persona, before the pagan god mask, even before Lucifer was cast out of heaven.

Sam wondered how a person as good as the man in the building in front of him could end up as the wrathful and bitter angel he was before.


	4. Voices

Sam made his way back into the hospital after his phone call, smiling at the giggling nurses as he headed back to work. He walked back through the corridors, getting ready to bring out his patients to the day room, where they would spend the hour and a half before lunch.

He finished escorting the elderly lady who saw fairies to the day room (Sam would be more sympathetic if it was something like ghosts, but everyone knows fairies don't exist), before he made his way to the amnesiac archangel.

Whilst Sam opened the door, he felt a tug of sympathy as he took in the scene; his patient was sitting in exactly the same place as he had earlier, but as soon as his carer had walked in, the blonde had stiffly uncrossed his legs.

Gabriel looked just as exhausted as he had that morning, but offered a trusting smile at his carer's entrance. Sam felt a slight tug of hope as he saw the archangel's smile; he couldn't help but see the ghost of the smirk that belonged to a cocky trickster he's used to know, despite the hospital-issued clothing and the lost weight. Maybe it was a sign that his patient was improving.

"That time already, huh", the smaller man said with a tired raise of his eyebrows. Gabriel started to raise himself into a sitting position, and Sam, seeing him struggle, offered a hand to help.

The moment Gabriel's hand clasped his, he froze. His eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped. Sam immediately dropped his hold and guided Gabriel back into a sitting position.

"Hey, you okay?", he asked sharply. The smaller man's mouth flopped like a goldfish, and it took him a few moments to gather his thoughts. The warmth from Sam's hand on his shoulder didn't help at all, but that wasn't the reason he stopped.

It was silent.

Absolutely, blissfully, completely silent. And Gabriel felt like he wanted to cry.

The blonde didn't remember shutting his eyes, but he realised when the disappointingly platonic hand on his shoulder dropped to his back and rubbed comfortingly.

He only noticed Sam was mumbling comforts to him with big eyes when he opened his own.

"You okay there, Gabe?", Sam asked. Stupidly, Gabriel couldn't help but feel a flush of pleased warmth at the sound of Sam giving him a nickname, and didn't realise he'd been asked a question until his carer leaned closer to get a better look at the blonde.

At the sign of Gabriel becoming more aware, Sam took back his hand, and shuffled slightly further away from the archangel, not noticing how close he'd been until he'd let go.

The second Sam's body contact with Gabriel stopped, the blonde's hand shot out and grabbed Sam's forearm. The taller man blinked, bewildered.

"It's quiet", Gabriel whispered, in wonder.

"I can't hear them anymore".

Sam smiled uncomfortably, not having a clue what he was talking about, and tried to peel Gabriel's hand off his arm,

"tha-that's great Gabe, can you let go? Your grip is kinda tight", he mumbled.

Gabriel winced and loosened his hold, but didn't let go,

"I can't", he spoke to his lap,

"The voices have shut up", a pleading pair of amber eyes peered up at Sam, silently begging him to permit this new development.

"You - you mean the ones that aren't there?", Sam asked, struggling to grasp the new development. Gabriel just shifted his eyes uncomfortably and unconsciously tightened his hold on the younger Winchester's arm.

Sam's gaze softened slightly; this put a dent in their plans, Gabriel couldn't exactly follow Sam around everywhere holding his arm, but the Winchester couldn't quite bring himself to restart the angels psychosis.

"Oh. Um, I see", he said awkwardly, staring down at the offensive hand, Sam wracked his brains for an explanation or, even better, a way out,

"Maybe it doesn't have to be me? Maybe it could just be a piece of my clothing?". For the next five minutes, the two men experimented with Sam's jacket, his uniform, and even a strand of hair the owner had pulled out in desperation.

Nothing worked. It seemed like Gabriel had to be touching clothing on Sam or his skin to not hear the voices.

Eventually, the two men flopped down on Gabriel's creaky mattress, the archangel holding Sam's arm, and both completely out of ideas.

"I was so damn sure that last one would work", Gabriel muttered and the taller man sighed and replied,

"We'll just have to keep trying".

"What I want to know is why the voices stop when you touch me. You've brushed other people in here, right?", Gabriel nodded,

"Then it must be because you used to know me", Sam pondered for a moment, before realising something,

"You never told me what the voices say", he mused,

"Are they only intolerable because they're a constant? Or do they talk to you like Lucifer?".

Gabriel sat up on his elbow and looked down at the taller man, keeping his hand firmly attached,

"Oh you know, the usual stuff", he smirked humorlessly, and looked at the wall,

"Apocalypse, Michael, Lucifer", Gabriel took his hand away for a moment, paused, then replaced it.

"Right now they're babbling on about Raphael sending a scout to America. Religious psychosis, remember", he said with forced lightness, tapping his head.

Gabriel wasn't crazy.

Sam let out a bark of laughter. The tall man sat up and grinned at Gabriel,

"Gabe, I hate to tell you this, but you're not crazy," the blonde opened his mouth, frowning, but Sam cut in before he could talk,

"I can't tell you how I know, but I think he voices are real".

Gabriel knew that should have set him running, who in their right mind says that? But he trusted Sam. He had to trust Sam. If he didn't, Gabriel felt like he'd lose touch of reality completely.

"You're beginning to remember things, as if subconsciously you never forgot", the taller man continued,

"I think you still have all your memories, but I want to see if you dream anything tonight".

"I might be wrong, but they could be key to fixing your 'problem' ". A bell rung in a corridor nearby, and Sam winced apologetically,

"Damn, I forgot to take you to the day room, it's lunch already". The tall man looked significantly at the hand still attached to his arm, and it's owner reluctantly unpeeled it. Sam smiled, and lead the archangel towards the lunch room, wondering about the message about Raphael on angel radio as he went.

•••••••

That night Gabriel had another dream. It was just as vivid and strange as the one from the night before, but he was ready this time. Sam had told him to remember, and the effort that he was putting into making Gabriel better, plus the fact that he seemed to be succeeding, made him the most important person in Gabriel's life. Not that it was a difficult position to fill.

He dreamt of his escapades as someone referred to as either Loki or the Trickster, but so far, there had been no hints as to who Sam was. He gathered that the first dream was later on in his memories, and they seemed to just get further and further back, as if he was watching someone's life on rewind.

Mostly, this guy travelled around dishing out punishments for guys who he seemed to think deserved it. Gabriel just thought of Loki as a vicious and vindictive killer who clearly had no moral conscience. He was sad, but not surprised when he figured out that the amount of blood on Loki's hands was staggering, but a small part of his brain still whined, 'that's not me' and 'this is all impossible'.

Despite how much he wanted that to be true, he knew somewhere deep inside, that it was all him. And that terrified him.

After a turmoil of dreams, he met Sam. The dream started with Gabriel in a diner not looking like Gabriel. He knew he shouldn't know this, not just because it was impossible, but because he'd never experienced it before.

The blonde knew he wasn't himself, first off, because of the height. It was rather disorientating, being even a little taller than he actually was, but what really gave away the change was his reflection in the jug of, what appeared to be, maple syrup in front of him, plus the long, rectangular mirror on the wall in front of his position at the counter showed the image of a middle-age businessman with thinning dark hair and wrinkles.

If there was one thing Gabriel knew about himself, it was that he had no wrinkles. The whole scene was slightly disorientating.

Okay, normally his dreams had some sort of purpose, and he'd certainly never seen himself doing something as normal as eating breakfast in a diner. He slowly began to recognise sounds around him, especially the voices drifting from a table behind him.

"I'll have a Pig in a poke, with a side of bacon, and a coffee", a smug, masculine voice carried over his head. He wasn't really concentrating when another's voice caught Gabriel's attention,

"Make it two coffees and a short stack", there was no way he'd mistake it's owner.

If it wasn't for the fact that he had no control over his body, the smaller man would have whipped around to face Sam. Instead, his eyes flicked up to the mirror along the wall, noticing his reflection again, and feeling a worried flutter in his gut at the cruel smirk that painted itself across his face.

A bubble of excitement rose up in Gabriel's stomach; this was the first time he'd seen Sam in one of his dreams. He squinted past his reflection, trying desperately to catch a glimpse of his carer through his peripheral vision. He was desperate to know who this mysterious guy really was, and why he was helping him.

Maybe he'd helped Sam in some way, or maybe they'd become friends over drinks in a bar. He just wanted to know why Sam was putting such an effort into helping him and who he was! To his dismay, his body's eyes turned downwards to his food before he could get a look. Gabriel watched as another's hands started cutting up the stack of pancakes in front of him, meticulously applying maple syrup as he listened,

"I'm telling you, Sam, this job is small fry. We should be spending our time hunting down Bela".

A frustrated sigh drifted through to Gabriel's ears, and he would've recognised it anywhere,

"Okay, sure, let's get right on that. Where is she again?", The blonde man would've grinned if he could,

"Shut up", was Dean's curt reply.

"Look. Believe me, I want to find her as bad as you do. In the meantime, we have this", a rustling of paper came from behind him, and Gabriel itched to be able to see what they were doing, but Loki seemed perfectly content with just eating it's pancakes, and listening,

"Alright, so this professor-", Dean's chair squeaked as he leant forward. Gabriel's dread grew as his body smirked in response to Dean's words, and somehow, he knew that the professor wasn't just going to turn up.

He listened as the two men's conversation turned to a 'mystery spot', and as they planned to investigate the professor's disappearance. Sam obviously had no idea who he was, and Gabriel felt a stab of disappointment at the thought. Either they hadn't met yet, or Gabriel had changed face to hide from Sam. All he could do was pray for the latter.

The waitress approached the Winchester's table with their drinks and a bottle of hot sauce, placing them down on the table with a smile,

"Two coffees, black, and some hot sauce for the—", a crash sounded from behind him, and Gabriel was relieved to see his body turn in surprise to take in what had happened.

A slightly-younger looking Sam with shorter hair smiled apologetically round the diner, his eyes only meeting Gabriel's once, but it was enough to send a shiver of delight through his body and to make his hands tighten on the tabletop.

God, he really was like a schoolgirl with a crush, he thought embarrassedly as his body turned back to its pancakes. Gabriel looked down as his body unclenched his curled fists- wait, what? His body had clenched it's fists at Sam's smile? He couldn't control his body like this, he was reliving his memories after all, could that me

It sure would explain a lot. Gabriel was sure that feelings didn't develop that quickly, even for pubescent teenage girls. Gabriel scolded himself for jumping to conclusions, his body might've just been worried about Sam seeing him, if they'd met before, or it could just be an accident.

Somehow, those ideas rang hollow inside the blonde man, the little voice whispering the negative in his head not helping his argument in the slightest.

He heard as Sam and Dean finished their coffees, ate the food, and left. He watched through his own eyes as he set down his knife and fork, clicked his fingers and watched the room morph into a comfortable sitting room with a large, flat-screen TV.

Two hours ago, he would've still been surprised by the impossible trick, but after a fast-forward of a whole year in two hours, he'd seen enough crazy space-manipulation to just go with it.

He watched on screen as Sam and Dean walked down a street, but Gabriel was surprised to note that there was no trace of Loki's symbolic smirk as he watched, in fact, he almost looked uncomfortable with what he was doing, yet he still had a stubborn hardness in his gaze as he watched. It almost looked as if he was about to do something unpleasant. The thought caused a pit of dread to settle in his gut.

The brothers walked through the street, still talking about the professor and the 'mystery spot' he supposedly disappeared at. There were no snacks in Loki's hand's this time, and he watched and listened in grim silence as the Winchesters decided to come back that evening.

The dream sped through the next ten hours, Loki doing nothing but watch the brothers do mundane tasks like read up on mystery spots and do research into the professor. Finally, the boys gathered up their things and made their way to the 'mystery spot'.

Gabriel watched as Sam and Dean opened a door with a double spiral painted on it into a neon green and black corridor, their flashlights bobbing uncertainty in front of them. Dean looked up at a table nailed to the ceiling, and snorted, "Wow. Uncanny". The taller Winchester sent his brother an irritated look as he examined a table on a slant towards the floor.

They crept forwards in a military fashion, Sam checking the unresponsive EMF meter every now and then, "found anything?", Dean asked, without looking at his brother. The younger Winchester shot another despairing look at the silent machine in his hands, "no", he sighed. Dean turned with a raised eyebrow, "do you know what you're looking for?".

Sam frowned, offended, "Uh ... yeah", he mumbled, before his eyes shifted uncomfortably, "No", he amended. Gabriel was growing less and less comfortable with the whole situation as the time passed. The only times he'd seen Loki watch people on screen was when they were his targets, but that was impossible. Simply because Sam and Dean were still alive.

The blonde was startled out of his musings by a shrill new voice coming from the screen, "What the hell are you doing here?". Gabriel focused on a nervous Sam as his eyes flickered between the gun the owner of the spot was holding, and his brother, the former wobbling dangerously towards the latter.

For the first time in 10 hours, the trickster stretched his body, and sat up, as a short, tense conversation between the brothers and the owner ensued on screen. With the foreboding feeling in the pit of his stomach expanding, Gabriel watched as his body stood, sent one last look at the tall man on screen, and clicked his fingers. The resulting gunshot was the loudest thing Gabriel had ever heard.

Dean crumbled. Sam scrambled towards his brother, despite the logical, traitorous part of his brain whispering about the inevitable shredded organs at that range. The younger Winchester frantically tried to stem the bleeding, yelling at the shocked owner to call an ambulance as he applied pressure to his brothers wounds.

It was a pointless task; blood just kept welling up between his fingers. With every panicked yell of his carer, every mumbled, "no..", and fumbled movement as Sam tried to stem his brother's bleeding shot a javelin of shock and self-loathing through Gabriel.

This wasn't possible. Dean was alive, wasn't he? Gabriel frantically thought back to their conversation about Sam's family, trying to remember if there had been any hint of a past tense when his carer had been talking about his family, and coming up empty handed.

As far as he could remember, the younger Winchester had always spoken about his brother in the present tense, no hint of blame or hatred in his voice as he spoke to Gabriel about Dean, yet as the blonde watched his best friend sob hysterically into his brothers shirt, he couldn't help but wonder why.

So it was an understatement to say he was surprised to hear his voice, tense with discomfort, mumbling reassurances to himself, as he watched the turmoil on screen, "he needs this lesson", a hand came up to run itself quickly through his hair, "Distance yourself, Gabriel! You're helping him!", the other hand rubbed over his eyes with a groan, and with one last tortured look at the crying Sam, he clicked his fingers.

Sam's eyes blinked open on-screen, Asia's, 'heat of the moment', blaring out through the motel radio's tinny speakers. Gabriel's body chuckled humorlessly, and muttered something about the song being ironic, as if he knew what that meant. He watched as his carer shot up into a sitting position, breath short and uneven, with a confused glance around him, and focused on his very alive, brother. A relieved look washed over Sam's face, and Dean grinned from his position on the other bed, where he was tying his shoes, "come on Sammy! Rise and shine".

Sam was breathing hard, his chest rising and falling rapidly, eyes switching between his brother and the clock radio. Dean mistook his stunned and panicked silence for dislike of the song, "Dude. Asia", he dead-panned. Sam still couldn't believe his eyes, but he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, "Dean", he stared at his brother, not believing his eyes.

Still oblivious to his brothers relief, Dean frowned at his brothers taste in music, "Oh, come on, you love this song and you know it", he teased, before getting up and bopping to the beat of the song as he danced towards the bathroom.

Gabriel was just as confused as Sam, what was the purpose of killing someone, then make it so that none of the day ever happened? It just seemed pointless. He refocused on the screen, watching as Sam took a mouthful of water, swished, then spat next to a loudly gargling Dean, who was obviously fishing for a reaction.

When he received none, the older Winchester frowned and spat out his water, wiping his mouth on the back of his sleeve, "what?", he grumbled, annoyed at his lack of response. Sam's eyebrows scrunched together, and he rested his hands on the sink in front of him, pondering, "I don't know", he said finally. Dean frowned in concern, "you alright?", he asked, scanning his brothers face for any sign of pain. Sam looked down at the white sink in confusion, "I think I-", he paused thoughtfully, before chuckling, "Man, I had a weird dream", he grumbled, shaking his head to dislodge any remaining thoughts. Dean grinned wolfishly, "Yeah? clowns or midgets?".

Gabriel watched as the Winchesters made their way back to the diner, Sam looking vaguely puzzled as he glanced around at the all too-familiar surroundings. Gabriel swung his legs round the the edge of the bed, snapped his fingers, and watched as the room around him melted into the layout of the restaurant, Doris the waitress smiling as she put down a stack of pancakes in front of him.

He had just started pouring maple syrup on top of his pancakes with his foreign hands when the bell on the doors announced a customer's arrival. Soon after, two pairs of heavily boot-clad feet walked into the diner and sat at the table behind him. Gabriel watched as the cashier gave a swaying man some change, the woman looked him up and down, and offered a nervous, "Drive safely, Mr Pickett".

The guy stumbled out of the diner, mumbling to himself. Doris approached the man sitting to the right of Gabriel with a fresh pot of coffee, "can't stay unless you order something, Cal. You know the rules". Cal looked up at her with tired eyes, "coffee", he grumbled, and Doris complied, pouring him a mugful.

"Hey! Tuesday, pig in a poke", Dean's surprised voice cut through the babble of the diner as Gabriel ate his pancakes. "It's Tuesday?", came Sam's confused reply. The blonde began to understand what his past self had done; yesterday had been Tuesday as well. This was starting to look like a time loop.

He'd become good at guessing what sort of twisted punishment his body was going to administer by now, perhaps it helped that he'd done it before as well. There was a confused pause, before Dean answered slowly, "...yeah..?". Doris walked out from behind the counter and approached the Winchesters, "are you boys ready?", Dean grinned up at her, "yeah, I'll have the special, side of bacon, and a coffee", there was silence for a moment, presumably as Doris waited for Sam's order, Gabriel thought.

"Uh, nothing for me thanks", Sam stuttered, staring at her, "let me know if you change your mind", she smiled and walked away. "I'm telling you Sam, this job is small fry. We should be spending our time hunting down Bela". Gabriel looked at Sam's reflection in the mirror, watching his carer's eyes stare confusedly after the waitress.

"Hey", Dean snapped his fingers in front of Sam's face, and the younger Winchester jumped, before turning his gaze back to his brother. "You with me?", Dean asked, his voice laced with sarcasm that was concealing concern. "What?", Sam said quickly, refocusing, Dean leant back in his chair, studying his younger brother thoroughly, "you sure you're okay?".

Gabriel continued to eat his pancakes, as the taller Winchester sent a nervous and unsure glance around him, "you don't- you don't remember? Any of this?". Another piece of pancake passed Gabriel's lips, and he had to say, with what experience of pancakes he'd had so far in his back-to-front memory, that these were exceptionally good specimens.

The blondes eyes were still on Sam's reflection, "remember what?" Dean asked, thoroughly confused by his brothers antics. "This. Today. Like it's—like it's ... happened before?".

The trickster just continued to eat his pancakes as the conversation went on, Sam trying his best to convince his brother that this was his second Tuesday, not just déjà vu, as his brother spoke to him like he was crazy. Eventually, the waitress returned to their table with Dean's food, "Coffee, black, and some hot sauce for the—oops! Crap!", Sam watched the balancing bottle of hot sauce tip off the tray, and his hand shot out and grabbed it, "thanks!", Doris grinned, looking between the brothers.

Dean chuckled and punched Sam in the shoulder, "nice reflexes!", he grinned. Sam said nothing.

Gabriel was watching the TV from the bed again as Sam and Dean walked down an identical street to the one they did yesterday, Dean was still confused as to what Sam was talking about, but they had moved back into the topic of the mystery spot.

The younger Winchester kept sending puzzled looks at the people on the street, who he could have sworn were the same as the day before, as he walked, "All right, all right, we'll go tonight, after close, get ourselves a nice long look", Dean drawled. Sam whipped around as he realised what his brother'd said, "Wait, what?", he shook his head quickly, "No". Gabriel felt a pang of sympathy, he knew just how much Sam loved his brother, and seeing him go through that, with the possibility of it happening again, was obviously too much for the younger Winchester.

Dean just sent him a look, and kept walking, "why not?", he asked. Sam glanced around nervously, "Uh – Let's just go now. Right now. Business hours, nice and crowded", he muttered nervously. This time, the taller Winchester earnt himself a full-on weirded out stare from his brother, "My God, you're a freak", Dean stated. Gabriel's body chuckled, but there was no depth to it, it was as if he felt he should laugh. It was strange, the blonde knew from experience that Loki was pretty sadistic, but he had never seen his alter-ego so somber during one of his 'hunts'.

The trickster watched as Sam stopped and sent his brother one of his trademark bitch-faces, with an added, "Dean", for extra emphasis. The older Winchester sighed at his sibling's lack of humour, pausing in his stride, "Okay! Whatever. We'll go now".

The older Winchester strode ahead, past the curb, and into the centre of a road. Sam gave one last confused glance to his surroundings, before turning in time to see his brother look right, and have a car slam into him from his left. Dean rolled over the bonnet, and hadn't hit the floor for longer than two seconds before he was in his brother's arms.

"Dean! No", Dean's head flopped lifelessly as his brother shook him, "No, no!". Gabriel could feel Sam's pain; his anguish was written across his face, it twisted the trickster's heart, and more surprisingly, it seemed to affect his body as well. Loki's hands were clenched tightly, and his palms were clammy, fists slippery against the fabric of his trousers. Once again, Gabriel could hear snatches of his muttering, "..shouldn't have gotten so attached...for the best". Rather than helping Sam, Loki seemed to be thinking he was doing more good than bad by putting the Winchester through this suffering.

Gabriel thought his alter-ego was more insane than he was.

Through the screen, Sam closed his eyes in pain, clutching his brother to his chest as heaving sobs wrenched through his body. The blonde could read his carer's thoughts easily from the expression on his face. Sam was bewildered and hurt, confused as to why his brother had been taken from him twice on the same day, and the pain was doing something terrible to him. A panic had settled into the younger Winchesters eyes, and it was more than unsettling.

Once again, Gabriel clicked his fingers with a grimace, and the taller Winchester woke up in bed, listening to Asia.

"Hey! Tuesday! Pig in a poke", Gabriel could hear Dean's grin from behind him, but the tension coming from his brother was almost electric.

"Okay. Would you listen to me, Dean? 'Cause I am flipping out", Sam hissed as loudly as he could without causing a scene, his eyes flickering around the room. Gabriel inconspicuously poured maple syrup on his pancakes. Loki watched his victims from the mirror in front of him, and Gabriel watched as Sam leant in to his brother in an attempt to keep their conversation as low-key as possible.

Gabriel saw Doris making her way over to the boys, exactly as she had the day before, notepad in hand. He pondered for a moment if she, or any of this, was real. To be honest, he supposed it didn't matter, either possibility was a massive feat, and it also seemed more planned out than most of Loki's 'one night stand' tricks, where there was a quick build-up, then a dramatic, but speedy, climax, usually ending in the victim's demise.

This trick, however, seemed far more planned out and taken into consideration, plus the fact that it had taken up far more time than Loki usually bothered allocating to a single prank. It seemed so far that both blondes, former and current, had a soft spot for the youngest Winchester.

The waitress smiled an identically-copied smile, and asked her unchanging question, "you boys' ready?", Sam didn't even look. "He'll take the special, side of bacon, coffee, black. Nothing for me, thanks". Doris looked a bit taken aback at his abruptness, "you got it", she shrugged, and walked off.

Dean grinned and winked at his little brother, "Sammy, I get all tingly when you take control like that". Sam just sent him a glare, "Quit screwing around, Dean", he growled. Dean looked up at Sam's 'serious face', shocked at the edge to his brother's voice, "Okay. Okay. I'm listening. So", he paused for a moment, trying to grasp what Sam was telling him, "So – you think that you're in some kind of a, what again?".

His little brother sent an unsteady glance around the room, missing the businessman's stare, before settling on his brother again, "time loop".

"Like 'Groundhog Day'?", Dean clarified. Sam sighed and almost sagged in relief, "Yes", he said, "exactly like 'Groundhog Day'". Dean chuckled uneasily, "uh-huh", he mumbled, unconvinced. The taller Winchester sat back in his chair, a rather unimpressed look painted across his face, "you don't believe me", he stated. His older brother chuckled again, trying to infuse humour into the situation, "Its just a little crazy", he explained with forced lightness, "I mean, even for us crazy. You know, Like, uh-", the younger Winchester interrupted his brothers ramblings, "Dingo ate my baby crazy?", Sam grumbled with his eyebrows raised, unamusement written over his features. Dean was about to nod eagerly, but stopped and crinkled his eyebrows suspiciously, "How'd you know I was going to say that?", he frowned.

Gabriel sometimes wondered if the older Winchester was a bit dense.

Sam sounded aspirated, "because you said it before, Dean, that's my whole point!", he glanced around the diner again, eyes flicking over the concealed trickster, and for some unknown reason, Gabriel couldn't help but feel unreasonably disappointed that his carer didn't recognise him the second time.

Sam once again settled his eyes on his brother, and Doris brought out Dean's food. The waitress placed an identical plate of food in front of its owner, smiling as she set down the bacon, "Coffee, black, and some hot sauce for the—whoops! Crap", Sam's hand shot out and caught the falling bottle of hot sauce, handing it back to Doris without looking. "Thanks", she muttered, shocked, putting down the hot sauce and walking away with one last stare at Sam.

Dean chuckled with an easygoing grin, "Nice reflexes!", he complimented. Sam just stared at his brother, "No, I knew it was going to happen", the younger Winchester growled heatedly. Gabriel could see the older Winchester becoming more confused by the conversation, whilst Sam was just getting more agitated. Dean's voice once again started up from behind him, "Okay, look. I'm sure that there's some sort of an explanation—", Sam snapped.

"You're just going to have to go with me on this, Dean, you just have to, you owe me that much!", he'd started to yell, before remembering where he was and lowering his voice to an angry hiss. Dean just looked shocked at his brothers outburst, "calm down-", he started, but was interrupted again, "Don't tell me to calm down! I can't calm down. I can't. Because—", Sam realised what he was about to say, and promptly shut his mouth. Now the older Winchester was suspicious, "because what?", he asked forcefully, Sam fidgeted in his seat, trying to think of a more delicate way to put it. Coming up short handed, he decided it was best to lay it out straight, hazel eyes stared imploringly into bottle green, "Because you die today, Dean".

Gabriel watched as the Winchesters left the diner, and once again, clicked himself into a room with a bed and a TV, with the two brothers walking down the street onscreen.

Feeling like a coma patient, the blonde man surveyed his bland surroundings once again with confusion; why bother doing all this? It was a bit of an excessive and time consuming prank for one guy, and not to enjoy it whilst you go wasn't Loki's style. Gabriel just hoped he wasn't doing anything incredibly stupid.

"Well, I don't know how else to explain it, Dean!", Sam's voice came out of the speakers with surprisingly good quality. The Winchesters had moved on to more radical explanations to their problem, as a simple time loop seemed a bit complicated for the older brother, "All right! All right. We'll go tonight after they close, get ourselves a nice long look", he proposed, a bit pissy with his brother's lack of tolerance. Sam froze, "No, no, no, no, no", He shook his head with every word, "we can't", he made a good attempt at a straight face, but his voice wobbled, and he had to swallow to get rid of the lump in his throat.

"Why not?", the trickster though Dean was clearly oblivious, and could possibly have been dropped on his head as a child. "Because you-", Sam stopped suddenly, unable to finish. Finally, Dean caught on, "I what?", he asked sharply, "I die there?", Sam swallowed again, "blown away actually", he managed. Dean didn't look too fazed, "Huh. Okay, let's go now", he started to walk forward towards the curb.

Sam's hand shot out and yanked him back before he managed to set foot in front of the speeding car. "Stay out of the way!", a drunken slurring voice called out its window as it passed, and the taller man glared venomously at the vehicle as it passed. Dean laughed, but stopped when he saw his little brother's face, drawing the dots, "Wait, did he-?", Sam nodded, "Yesterday. Yeah", he ran a hand over his face.

"And?", Dean's voice had taken on his I'm-going-to-be-a-childish-moron tone, Sam looked at him with concern, not quite catching on, "and what?". The older Winchester grinned, "Did it look cool? Like in the movies?", Sam was speechless, outrage bubbled up inside him, the selfish asshole, "you peed yourself", he said coldly.

Dean's face reddened, "Of course I peed myself! Man gets hit by a car, you think he has full control over his bladder? Come on!", he snarled, and looked both ways before crossing the road.

It seemed to be a never-ending cycle. Even Loki appeared to be getting bored of it; he kept fidgeting and sighing in displeasure every time Sam made an effort to save his brother. Gabriel had also come to the conclusion that his alter-ego had a bad habit of talking to himself, especially when he was frustrated, "Father!", he yelled out after the tenth day, "can't he just learn! It's not that difficult, do I have to spell it out?".

Another thing the blonde man had gathered from his dreams were that Loki needed a diet high in sugar to stay out of the grouchy region, and he knew that since he'd trapped the brothers into this new dimension, he'd been surviving off one plate of pancakes a day, and the signs were beginning to show.

Apart from becoming even more creative in his douchebaggery, The lack of food had made the trickster lose weight. Not that he was chubby before, but for a creature who was used to constant snacking, living off one meal a day was going to take its toll, and the healthier, past version of himself was beginning to look a little more like the Gabriel that was asleep in a mental hospital in Boston.

Despite whatever lesson it was Loki wanted Sam to learn, he clearly wasn't getting it, and Dean kept dying. Last time, Sam had almost lost it, shouting stuff and swinging an axe into the wall of the mystery spot as Dean comforted the duct-taped owner, but as usual, Dean died, and Sam opened his eyes to Asia.

Eventually, Gabriel found himself watching the Winchesters walking down the street on Sam's one hundredth Tuesday. Dean glanced around at the unfamiliar faces and scenery, "There's gotta be some way out of this", he muttered.

They passed Mr Pickett, the man who's key's Sam lifted, "'Where's my dang keys?'", the younger Winchester muttered. "Where's my dang keys?", Mr Pickett growled from behind them. The continued on for a moment, "'Excuse me'", the younger Winchester once again uttered as a blonde girl approached them, carrying papers, "excuse me", she mumbled as she accidentally knocked into them. Dean gave her a once-over, and a lecherous grin spread over his face, "she's kinda cute", he said appraisingly, giving his brother a sly grin, "Hey. All the times we've walked down this street, I ever do this?", he turned back and started to run after the girl.

Sam stared after him in shock, "No", his voice was stunned, but a grin had spread across his face. By now, anything new was welcome in the younger Winchester's small world, especially something new from his brother.

Sam heard a flirtatious, "'Scuse me, miss", from his brother before the rest of the conversation was lost in him, after a lol of charming and a few flashes smiles, the blonde girl gave him one of her papers with a tense smile, and Dean ran back towards the other man, a triumphant grin on his face, "A hundred Tuesdays and you never bothered to check what she was holding in her hands?", he said smugly.

Sam shrugged, but Dean wasn't going to let it go that easily; he didn't always get to outsmart his brother, "That's the guy who went missing", he crowed, showing Sam the photo on the flyer, MISSING written in bold letters across the top. Sam nodded, "yeah?", Dean winked at him, "that's his daughter back there". Sam snatched the flyer and ran after her, "Ma'am? Ah, Miss?", he called out. The dog tied up next to a too-smug looking Dean barked to get his attention, "hey buddy! Somebody need a friend? AHHH-".

Gabriel almost jumped out of his skin when Loki jerked up into a sitting position, eyes wide and moving frantically as his body tried to regain control on events. The former trickster swung his legs off the bed, and began to pace, mumbling his thoughts as he scoured the room, "Okay, just relax. It's a minor mistake, something was bound to go wrong sometime". Loki's eyebrows furrowed, "Didn't even realise he had a daughter. That was careless", his eyes once again found the screen, "just hope he doesn't make the connections", the trickster ran a hand through his hair.

Loki stalked up to the screen, and clicked his fingers.

It seemed that after one hundred and four Tuesdays, even Loki could get sick of maple syrup. It was the first change he'd made since the start of this seemingly pointless game, but it appeared that in between his Sam-watching and posing as the slightly chubby, middle aged businessman, the trickster just needed a bit of variety.

It really shouldn't have been a problem, it was the smallest change, not related to anything. Gabriel supposed his counterpart hadn't really thought anything of it, or it could've just been pure carelessness derived from a sugar low, either way, Loki ordered strawberry syrup.

And his mental opponent was Sam Winchester.

The one hundredth and fifth Tuesday started exactly the same as the others, the trickster watched as Sam woke to the now almost sickening sound of Asia, and trudged to the diner alongside his brother. They sat in their booth behind Gabriel, and discussed the relatively small revelation between them, doing research on the lost man. Gabriel poured the pink syrup over his pancakes, enjoying the change in flavour; he wasn't going to be able to eat maple syrup again without feeling vaguely sick.

Dean's annoying voice drifted into Gabriel's space, "I just, it's just funny, you know", the older Winchester started, looking down at the research on Sam's laptop, "I mean, this guy spends his whole life crapping on Mystery Spots and then he vanishes into one. It's kinda poetic, you know, just desserts", the Trickster's body froze, this was not good. His eyes flickered up to the mirror in front of him, praying the genius on the opposite side of the table wouldn't put two and two together. Gabriel watched with interest, this was definitely starting to look like Loki and Sam had met before this time, especially if Sam knew what he was.

Sam raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement, "You're right, that is just desserts". That was enough for Loki. He clicked his fingers and the world froze. The businessman left change on the counter by his plate as he folded up his newspaper, and tried to look like he wasn't running out of the diner. Loki needed time to reevaluate.

He transported himself back into the plain room with the bed, paced the layout of the room a few times, before sitting in the edge of his mattress and pressed play, watching the quickly-becoming-less-oblivious Winchesters. Sam was staring at Gabriel's place, and the trickster cursed; that wasn't an oblivious Winchester look, that was an I've-just-figured-it-out Winchester look.

Dean seemed to have realised Sam's revelation as well, "What's wrong?", he asked sharply, realising his brother had just figured out something important. "Guy has maple syrup for the last hundred Tuesdays, all of a sudden he's having strawberry?", Sam muttered suspiciously, a light of realisation appearing in his eyes as he watched the quickly receding man speed past the window of the diner. Dean was clearly thinking he needed to re-define his brother's major-realisation face, "It's a free country. Man can't choose his own syrup, huh? What have we become?", he teased. The younger Winchester turned his face back towards his brother, and Gabriel watched the thoughts all come together in his mind, "Not in this diner. Not today. Nothing in this place ever changes. Ever. Except me". A clear click sounded from the TV speakers, and Sam sat up in bed to the sound if Asia.

Loki snarled and viciously stabbed the off button on the remote, running a hand over his face in anger. Gabriel couldn't help but feel a flush of pride towards his friend; the Trickster would learn not to underestimate the smarts of his carer. His body sat on the edge if the mattress for a minute or two, trying to think up a way of dealing with the problem without undoing all the work he'd put in. Eventually, he groaned in displeasure and stood up, snapping his fingers to appear in the diner.

Once again, Loki ordered a plate of pancakes with maple syrup, clearly deciding to play it safe with his food. Gabriel wasn't entirely certain as to why he was sitting in the diner again, surely it would have been safer for him to not show up at all and abandon the prank. The only explanation he could think up was that his evil counterpart had decided upon a different set of tactics. Gabriel looked at his reflection in the mirror; he didn't look as if he didn't know what he was doing, he looked like he had a new plan.

The doorbell announced the Winchester's arrival, but Loki didn't look up, just continued to eat his breakfast. Sadly, it did nothing to alleviate the feeling of hazel eyes burning into the back of his head from behind him. "So, you think your stuck in a kind if what again?", Dean mumbled sleepily. Loki's eyes dared to flicker up to the mirror, catching sight of an intense stare coming from the younger Winchester, before attempting to casually return his eyes to the plate in front if him.

"Shut up and eat your breakfast", Sam replied, not taking his eyes off the back of the man sitting in front of him. Gabriel's body took that as his cue to leave. Somehow, probably thanks to the logistics of Loki's game, Gabriel could still see what was happening in the diner, whilst he made his way down the street. As soon as the door had shut behind him, the younger Winchester was on his feet, chucking a ten dollar bill on the table and grabbing the bag from beside him. Dean stuffed one last piece of bacon in his mouth before scrambling to his feet, eyes on the material in his brother's hands, "what's in the bag", he asked around his mouthful of bacon, as he jogged around the table to keep up with Sam. He was ignored. Sam pushed open the door and scoured the streets for any sign of the businessman. He caught sight of him turning the corner into an alley, and jogged to catch up, Dean followed nervously behind him, looking completely baffled.

Gabriel heard the two pairs of quickly-approaching footsteps from behind him, and was sure Loki did too, but his body didn't turn. In fact, the trickster didn't acknowledge the brothers' existence until he'd been shoved up against the metal grill of a fence with a wooden stake against his throat. Loki inhaled sharply and eyed the point with round eyes and dilated pupils, despite the fact that Gabriel knew his heartbeat hadn't risen at all, almost as if he'd been expecting it. "Hey!", he said in a nervous voice that didn't sound a thing like his own, eyes darting frantically between the stake and the triumphant, furious, and utterly gorgeous face of Sam Winchester. Gabriel wanted to yell out that it was all part of the trick; Loki knew what he was doing. Unwittingly, Sam was playing right into his hands.

"I know who you are", Sam hissed, pressing the stake harder into the man's throat, "or should I say, what", he snarled. Gabriel felt himself swallow with fake fear, "Oh my god, please don't kill me", he stuttered, staring imploringly at Dean, his voice breaking. The older Winchester stood less than a meter away, watching his brother with a look which said that he didn't know whether to let the scene play out, or intervene.

"Uh, Sam?", Dean said calmly, trying to get his brother to drop the stake from the innocent man's neck, yet as per usual, he was ignored. "It took me a hell of a long time, but I got it", Sam snarled into Gabriel's face, an almost manic look derived from over a hundred Tuesdays on his face. "What?", Gabriel heard himself stutter, but Sam wasn't fazed, "It's your MO that gave you away. Going after pompous jerks, giving them their just desserts—your kind loves that, don't they?", he grinned, triumphant.

That was the point in which Gabriel looked back and cursed himself for not realising what a snake his past self had been, he'd acted so innocent, acted so cornered, that he'd managed to twist the younger Winchester into thinking he'd won, when really, it was just the next stage in Loki's new plan. The trickster just stared pleadingly at Dean, knowing he was cornered but fishing for one last little bit of fun, "Yeah, sure. Okay", he said quickly, innocently. He sent a nervous glance down at the stake, before back up at Sam, "Just put the stake down!", the trickster pleaded.

That was enough for Dean. "Sam, maybe you should-", one icy look from his brother shut him up, "No! There's only one creature powerful enough to do what you're doing. Making reality out of nothing, sticking people in time loops—in fact you'd pretty much have to be a god", Dean didn't seem to be sure where his brother was going with this, but Gabriel felt himself swell with pride at Sam's deductive prowess, all from one little jug if strawberry syrup. Loki just seemed unsurprised by what he was hearing. Sam leant in a bit, and Gabriel could count the freckles adorning his nose as he sneered, "You'd have to be a Trickster". Loki couldn't resist stirring up trouble between the brothers, "Mister, my name is Ed Coleman, my wife's name is Amelia, I got two kids, for crying out loud I sell ad space—",

By now, Sam was starting to look seriously pissed off, "Don't lie to me! I know what you are! We've killed one of your kind before!", and that was enough playing around for Loki, "Actually, bucko, you didn't".


	5. The Beginning

Gabriel felt himself change, his features morphed back into a more familiar position, and for some reason, he was comforted to feel his hair grow back into it's longer, waiver state.

He looked up with far too calm eyes into the shocked and hateful expressions of Sam and Dean. 

Sam looked like someone had punched him in the face, and Dean just looked incredibly pissed off. After a few moments of gaping at the smirking blonde, the younger Winchester managed to form words, "Why are you doing this?", Gabriel's heart leapt as he felt Loki waver slightly, but sank as he steadied again, fake, arrogant smirk on his lips, "You're joking, right? You chuckleheads tried to kill me last time. Why wouldn't I do this?". Although Gabriel knew the sour taste of a lie as soon as it had passed his lips, it seemed to pacify Sam, and the former trickster watched as his carer's expression turned stony.

Dean cut in angrily as his brother pressed the stake into Gabriel's neck, "and Hasselback, what about him?". Loki rolled his eyes, grin still stretched over his lips, "That Putz?", his voice took on a sing-song tone, and his eyes narrowed teasingly at Sam, "He said he didn't believe in wormholes, so I dropped him in one". Sam tightened his hold on Gabriel's collar as the blonde laughed. It was a poorly forced laugh, but the two men were so wound up they couldn't tell, "Then you guys showed up. I made for you the second you hit town".

Gabriel watched as Sam got more and more angry, the younger Winchester snarled and shoved Gabriel tighter against the fence, "so this is fun for you? Killing Dean over and over again?". Something in the tricksters stance changed, and Gabriel knew his past self was finally getting to the crux of the matter, "One, yes. It is fun", Gabriel's stomach churned as the trickster lied again, "and two?". He glared, "this is so not about killing Dean. This joke is on you, Sam". A sense of urgency made it's way past the barrier of time, and Gabriel could feel the tricksters desperate attempt to make the younger Winchester understand, "watching your brother die, every day? Forever?", Loki was finally revealing his lesson, and Gabriel could've kicked him. This was some sort of misguided attempt at helping Sam, wasn't it? It made sense in a backwards way; his emotionally constipated, sadistic counterpart cared for the tall man as much as Gabriel himself did..

"You son of a bitch", Sam snarled. Remembered irritation crawled up on Gabriel, and cracks of frustration coloured his words, "how long will it take for you to realise!", he took a breath, "you can't save your brother. No matter what".

"Oh yeah? I kill you, this all ends now", Sam glowered, "Oh-oh, hey, whoa!", Gabriel's blood ran cold as he was hit with a sudden sense of realisation. This was all part of the plan. Falsities continuing to weave the trickster's twisted game, "Look, I was just playing around. You can't take a joke? Fine, you're out of it. Tomorrow you'll wake up and it'll be Wednesday, I swear".

The stake was pressed so hard into Gabriel's neck that he felt a trickle of blood dribble down onto his collar, "you're lying", Sam snarled. Cool reasonable lies fell from his body's mouth as easy as truths, "If I am, you know where to find me. Having pancakes at the diner". A cold, hateful glare spread across Sam's face, "No. Easier to just kill you". Despite the hurt that sliced through Gabriel's gut at those words, his counterpart faked a smile, "Sorry, kiddo. Can't have that".

SNAP.

Back on the bed, Gabriel's memory stared sadly at the TV. Something didn't quite add up; the trickster didn't just give up. Especially not after spending so long on a project, and if he'd really let Sam go, why continue to watch him?

Gabriel continued to watch as Sam sent Dean ahead to pack the car, and it was only when a gunshot rang out that the reality of the situation dawned on him. He hadn't let Sam go. He'd taken care of the situation for him.

The rest of the dream seemed to go in a blur for Gabriel. His body did nothing but glower at a TV screen and make voicemails to Sam in a man called Bobby's voice. The longer Sam obsessed over finding the trickster, the more stressed and angry it got, and the more confused Gabriel felt. This Sam was not the same man Gabriel knew, and apparently, not the same man his past self had known either. This seemed to trouble the trickster to no end, and eventually, after a lot of swearing and voicemails, Gabriel's body picked up the phone and made a final recording, "Sam? It's Bobby. I found him".

When Sam turned up, Gabriel was kneeling on the floor in the body of an gruff sixty year old man, turning the pages of a book. On the floor, a crude chalk drawing stood with three candles at key points.  
The coarse man stood up as he heard Sam enter the room,   
"it's good to see you, boy", he rumbled and pulled the younger Winchester into a rough embrace. Gabriel couldn't help but notice that Sam was stiff and cold, like a corpse. It was wrong. Even the trickster seemed uneasy, and he pulled back quickly.

"What are we doing here, Bobby?", Sam's voice was hollow and alien, nothing like the rich tenor that usually possessed his words. If it made the trickster uncomfortable, he didn't show it, but it certainly left a bitter taste in Gabriel's mouth. 'Bobby' glanced around the room, "Well, it's the last place we're sure the trickster worked his magic". Sam's eyes gave nothing away as he spoke, "So?", Loki gave him a hopeless glance, "so you want this thing or not? I found a summoning ritual to bring the trickster here".

"What do you need?", the hollow Sam asked, and Gabriel felt himself swallow. Perhaps Loki was finally feeling remorse, or perhaps it was because the target it had picked was one he hadn't been so distanced from. Serious eyes locked into Sam's, "Blood", no reaction, "How much blood?". "Ritual says near a gallon. And it's gotta be fresh, too", the trickster said the words with relish, as if presenting a winning hand. Sam's interest peaked, "meaning we have to drain a person dry", Gabriel felt himself nod, "and it's gotta be tonight, or not for another 50 years". Gabriel knew lies, and it seemed this was another test, but what he wasn't expecting was the feeling of desperation bubbling beneath Loki's calm posterior. It seemed all the ordeals he'd put Sam through had taken their toll, and the painful cons of putting the man through terrible things, were finally outweighing the pros of whatever lesson he's been trying to teach.

A crashing sense of despair hit Gabriel as the younger man spoke, "then let's go get some", Gabriel didn't move as a hurt confusion that wasn't just his own swirled in his belly. The next words out of Bobby's mouth were the tricksters own. "You break my heart, kid", the cold Sam turned, "what?", whilst Gabriel was left reeling at the admission, his past self started to get angry, "I'm not gonna let you murder an innocent man!". It seemed months of pent up frustration were finally pouring out of the trickster, and the tide just increased the more Sam spoke, "then why'd you bring me here?".

"Why? Because it's the only way you'd see me!", Gabriel noticed just how hard his hands were clenched when a trickle of blood ran down his fists, "because I'm trying to knock some sense into you! Because I thought you'd back down from killing a man!". Just as Loki seemed to get himself under control, Sam spoke, "Well, you thought wrong. Leave the stuff, I'll do it myself", the trickster pulled himself back together, his emotions back in check. He was shaken by his own outburst, but focused now, sticking to the plan. "I told you, I'm not gonna let you kill a man", he was back to the acting, trying to finish what he'd started, clean up the mess he'd made.

Sam erupted, "it's none of your god-damn business what I do!", but the trickster was on a roll, he'd strengthened his resolve, and was once again trying to make Sam choose right. "You want your brother back so bad?", Gabriel felt his body unhook a sheath on his belt and shove the hilt of a knife in the younger Winchesters direction, "fine!". 

Sam eyed the knife, "what are you talking about?", Loki grabbed his hand, and pressed the hilt into Sam's palm, "better me than a civilian". Sam gave the fake Bobby a long look, "you're crazy", he shook his head, "I'm not killing you". A tenseness slowly bled out of Gabriel's memory-self. He received a clouded sense of relief that wasn't his own, and he realised why; that was the first Sam-like thing this stranger had said since meeting the trickster in the mystery spot. Loki had been terrified of corrupting Sam, of changing him so much that he was no longer the person who spoke to Gabriel like he was a human being, not just a mental patient in a high security ward. And no wonder, this Sam was barely a shred of the man Gabriel knew. And somehow, Loki was terrified of losing that man too.

Although he'd received the first sign that there was some of the old Sam in there somewhere, the trickster clearly wasn't ready to accept that as proof. Loki, and Gabriel, needed something more concrete than that, "Oh, now I'm the crazy one. Look, Sam, I'm old, I'm coming near the end of my trail. But you can keep fighting. Saving folk", the trickster sighed, "But you need your brother. Let me get him back to you-", Sam's face twisted, "Bobby-", but Loki wasn't done. He needed an oscar worthy performance to see just how deep the damage he'd done went, "You and Dean, you boys are the closest thing I have to family. I wanna do this".

Sam looked down at the knife in his hand, in the same patch of air that Bobby had left it, "Okay". Something not quite Sam glinted back at Gabriel from the depths of his eyes, but Loki was so caught up in his trick that he didn't seem to notice, "good". Gabriel turned away from the shadow of his Sam, and knelt down, "just make it quick". "Yeah okay", Sam's voice didn't sound right, not even like the hollow shade he'd been earlier, "but you wanna know why?", before Gabriel knew what was happening, an arm was wrapped around his throat, and Sam was hissing hatefully into his ear, "because you're not Bobby". Pain unlike anything Gabriel could ever remember tore through him, and he only looked down quickly enough to see a wooden stake puncture through the front of his shirt, dripping crimson. Then he was falling.

The pain only lasted for a second, before dulling down to a slow ache. Everything was silent, only Sam's panting breaths colouring the air, for too long. "...Bobby?". Maybe it the was wheezing fear punctuating the tall man's voice, but Loki rematerialised behind Sam, a resigned look on his face. A waved hand caused Bobby's body to shimmer, then disappear, and the stake flew through the air into Loki's hand with a satisfying slap. "You're right. I was just screwing with you", it was lucky the trickster had the never faltering excuse to brand onto his actions, "Pretty good, though, Sam. Smart. Let me tell you, whoever said Dean was the dysfunctional one has never seen you with a sharp object in your hands. Holy Full Metal Jacket!".

Gabriel had been expecting anger, to have another attempt on his life at least! He wasn't expecting beaten down eyes, and the most broken-looking man he'd ever laid eyes on. "Bring him back", there was no hatred anymore, just the last hope of a lost man. "Who, Dean? Didn't my girl send you flowers? Dean's dead. He ain't coming back. His soul's downstairs doing the hellfire rumba as we speak", Loki sent Sam a searching look, and was met only with desperation. "Just take us back to that Tuesday—uh, Wednesday— when it all started. Please. We won't come after you, I swear",the Trickster began to feel the first curling of real regret in his gut, but he still continued, "I don't know, even if I could-", a flicker of hope lit up the tall man's face, "You can!".

"True. But that don't mean I should", Loki walked towards Sam slowly, "Sam, there's a lesson here that I've been trying to drill into that freakish Cro-Magnon skull of yours-", scepticism raised on of the younger Winchester's eyebrows, "there was a lesson to all this?". This was the crux, the reason behind all this seemingly pointless suffering, and both Sam and Gabriel listened intently, "This obsession to save Dean? The way you two keep sacrificing yourselves for each other? Nothing good comes out of it. Just blood and pain. Dean's your weakness. And the bad guys know it, too", there was no finesse of teasing in Loki's words, they rushed out in a voice as sincere as either Gabriel or Sam had ever heard come from the tricksters mouth, "it's gonna be the death of you, Sam. Sometimes you just gotta let people go". Father, Gabriel couldn't stand many more of these desperate looks Sam was sending him, and by the strength of Loki's resolve, neither could the trickster. "He's my brother", Sam whispered brokenly, Loki looked up from under his brows, "Yup. And like it or not, this is what life's gonna be like without him".

"Please, just- please", there was no way Gabriel could deal with any more of this, and neither, it seemed, could Loki, "I swear, it's like talking to a brick wall. Okay, look. This all stopped being fun months ago", Loki poked Sam in the chest, "You're Travis Bickle in a skirt, pal. I'm over it".

"Meaning what?", Sam frowned. Gabriel felt a fake smirk plaster itself across his features, "meaning that's for me to know and you to find out".

SNAP.

Unlike last time, the dream around Gabriel didn't just fade into darkness. He was left standing in a body he was unable to control. It seemed Loki had only paused time for a moment, and Sam stood with his eyes closed, seemingly in the middle of blinking, but he looked so peaceful. Loki appeared just as affected by the picture of innocence in front of him as Gabriel, and stood for a moment. Just watching. He took in the shadows under Sam's eyes, the slightly-too-long hair, and the slightly parted mouth. The trickster swallowed thickly, and brushed his thumb across the man's cheek, before pulling himself away.

Gabriel was confused. He'd finished the dream, he gathered that Loki had fixed everything, and Sam and Dean went back to whatever it is they do together. All was well in the world.

So why hadn't he woken up?

Loki took a deep breath and closed his eyes, reaching for that part of him in the pit of his stomach that held the power he used for his games. But he didn't stop reaching. Usually, Loki would use that replenish-able well to power his tricks, yet he bypassed that pocket of power, and kept going, down into depths that Gabriel didn't know his body possessed, and there, like a underground reservoir, was an ocean of power. Crackling blue and playful, this power was nothing like the puddle that lay above it, and not just in size. Whereas that power was musky and mysterious, this was pure, clean and innocent. It was seemingly endless, and looked as if it had been untouched for a long time.

Loki took a deep breath, and plunged his hands into the electricity. Gabriel got the distinct sense that he was in danger, no, that Loki was in danger. Whatever he was doing was risky, there was no doubt about it. Why was he risking so much for one man? Gabriel could tell this wasn't the first time the trickster had come into contact with the younger Winchester, the familiarity and depth of feeling was too great for a meaningless acquaintance. Just how deep did Loki's feelings, and therefore Gabriel's, run?

The power began to drain into Loki's arms, it seemed as if the whole ocean was being sucked up. Pictures began to flash before Gabriel's eyes, like a film running backwards. Children, becoming infants. People not meeting. Actions being nullified. The whole world was undoing itself, turning back time, preventing hundreds of thousands of millions of choices, and it felt as if every single one was flashing before Gabriel's eyes. Was this the cost of preventing Dean's death? Eventually, a pitiful puddle lay in front of Loki, the vast ocean, cyan as far as the eye could see in every direction, reduced to this. The trickster carefully dipped his finger into the crackling power, watching as it lovingly clung to his fingertip, before gracefully sliding back into the remnants of that massive power.

A dizziness overcame both Loki and Gabriel, and he stumbled into his knees. A quick glance around revealed his surroundings to be the same room he'd spent so many hours watching the brothers in. Loki just lay there, out of breath and feeling as weak as a man recovering from the flu. The floor began to fall away, nothingness taking its place as the wood shimmered and vanished. Gabriel watched as Loki turned his head to see the TV screen, he saw the way the trickster looked through half closed eyes to watch Sam's joyous realisation that his brother was standing in front of him.

Gabriel left Loki as he lay on the floor of a dissolving room, and it all went dark.

"Have you figured it out yet?", the same voice from last night called out in a sing-song voice, before changing his tone to a more thoughtful one, "Or are you too distracted by the sexy young Winchester? That kiddo is rather hot". Gabriel snarled, he'd forgotten about this.

How had he forgotten about this?

"Seriously, who the hell are you?", the all encompassing chuckling started up, and the dreaming man shivered uncomfortably. He still couldn't figure out who this was! He felt as if it was always on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't quite grasp it. "There's definitely something wrong with you if you still don't know who I am", it laughed, "it's got to be you that's stopping you realising, not me. We do share this pickled melon, after all. Maybe you just can't deal with the truth", he mocked. Gabriel wished that this voice would just shut up and leave him alone in this comfortable state, "so you want to psychoanalyse me? What's your purpose then? You're a part of the craziness that my brain's come up with, so why don't you tell me? You're not real", he shot back.

The laughter increased exponentially, "not real? Oh you poor little angel, I'm more real than you are".

Just like the night before, Gabriel woke the moment after, covered in a cold sweat.

•••••••

"Am I really called Gabriel?", Sam was startled by the question fired at him as soon as he'd opened the door to give the patient his breakfast. His eyebrows knitted together in confusion, "yeah, that's the one name I'm certain is yours", his smile was dashed with confusion, "why?". Gabriel scratched his head awkwardly, "well, I had more dreams last night, and the whole way through, I was always referred to as Loki", he mused. Sam shrugged, "yeah, that was one of the names you went by, but Loki's a mask, your real name is Gabriel", Sam gave the smaller man his tray, "What dreams did you have?".

Gabriel spent the next half an hour explaining everything he could remember to his carer, he started with a stuck-up woman who he'd cursed with loosing everything, all the way back to the escapade at Mystery spot. Somewhere in the middle of the story-telling, the taller man had moved onto the bed to let the archangel grip his wrist. He'd earned a smile and a sigh of relief for his efforts. 

Sam grinned, "So, the whole syrup thing really was an accident?", Gabriel laughed, "I think so, Loki practically had a heart attack when you noticed, I think he thought it would mess up his plan", Sam chuckled half heartedly at the mention of the plan, "Wait, 'Loki'?", he raised a brow. Gabriel coughed, "oh, yeah. I dunno. I guess it's hard for me to think like you want me to, it's a bit sudden, you know?". Sam sat forward, nodding, "yeah, uh, sorry, it was stupid of me to think you'd take it just like that, I'm still surprised you haven't kicked me out and called another cater to be completely honest", Sam's head jerked up, "uh, don't, please. That would probably screw stuff up".

Gabriel raised a brow, "If I was going to eat you out, doncha think I'd have done it already?", he smirked.

Sam snorted, grinning. This guy seemed to have a habit of making you like him, he could see what the other nurses were on about. He and Dean still had a long way to go as far as getting Gabriel back into archangel-weapon shape, but he thought they could do it. 

A twinge of unease at the thought of using a person, who trusted you so thoroughly, as a weapon shot through Sam. But a smaller voice whispered that it was because he cared. Somehow, somewhere in the middle of the short time span in which Sam had known this Gabriel, he'd grown to think of him as a friend. Sam thought that it was similar to the way you'd look at a younger brother; you're wiser, more world-weary, and know all the cool t-shirt brands, and the way their eyes look up adoringly as you tell incredible stories and help them out makes you want to puff out your chest and impress them more.

Gabriel smiled happily. He loved making Sam laugh, it lit up his face and scrunched up his features into something that was both adorable and stunning at the same time. The smaller man enjoyed the comfortable silence for a moment, before breaking it, "part of me still thinks I'm mad", Sam looked up at him with curiosity mixed with concern, as he continued, "in my dreams I do crazy, impossible things, yet somehow, it still feels right. Like although I know it's crazy, my whole being knows with absolute certainty that I did it", Gabriel paused, thinking, "but although I guess if I was crazy, that's exactly what a crazy person would say".

Sam's face became serious, "I can promise you that you did all of those things. And although I don't agree with it all, I stand by what I said last time. You aren't a bad person, Gabe, and you're definitely not mad". Gabriel smiled a little in acknowledgement, before chuckling awkwardly, "I have so many questions, so many missing responses, and it's so damn frustrating knowing that you hold all the answers, but refuse to tell me!", Gabriel rolled his eyes forgivingly, "I know you say you won't tell me, but don't you think I've started remembering enough to know?". Sam grimaced, "Gabe, I really want to, I do, but I can't. First off, you'll think I'm mad-", he didn't even finish before he was interrupted, "I remembered myself teleporting, creating things out of thin air and then forgot all of it. What could possibly make me think you're the crazy one?", Gabriel argued petulantly.

Not yet, Sam's gut told him, and if there was one thing Sam knew, it was that he had to trust his gut instinct. Sometimes, it was the only thing that had stood between him and a grisly end, "I can't. You're already remembering stuff, just be patient". Gabriel sighed, "your star patient's being patient", he said, and smirked playfully. Sam raised an eyebrow in response, but both men knew he wasn't serious.

Gabriel let out a long-suffering sigh, and lay back on his bed, eyes still on his carer and hand still on his wrist, "well, if I can't know about me, what about you? I know a bit, like about your brother, but what about the details? Favourite colour, favourite song, favourite flavour of popcorn; what's your story?".

Sam was floored, the last person who wanted to know the little things was Jess. He was naturally quite a guarded person; nobody really knew about his life, his real life, but Gabriel did; Gabriel could. He knew about tricksters, and he must of come up against his fair share of vamps and wolves in his time. Sam, for the first time in his life, realised that he could be truly honest with someone who wasn't a hunter. Not half-honest, leaving out the ghosts and ghouls and nasty past, but truly, completely, able to open up. A pair of half-closed, honest amber eyes waited patiently from the bed, and Sam relaxed.

"Salt, my favourite flavour of popcorn is salty", he said with a slight turn up of his lips. Gabriel practically beamed, "mines salted caramel, coated in chocolate, with butter", Sam laughed, "at least we share the salt part in common", he chuckled, "How have you had popcorn like that in here anyway?". Gabriel smiled contently up at the ceiling, "I can remember it". 

Gabriel pondered, "you also hate being called Sammy, and have a downright unnatural obsession with salad", Sam's eyebrow rose, "you remember that too?", Gabriel just shrugged, and they settled into a comfortable silence.

Sam broke the silence eventually, "Blue, by the way, navy blue", Gabriel thought for a moment, trying to decide a favourite colour through all the swirls of his memory. Funnily enough, it seemed that Loki didn't bother with favourite colours, so he had to go with what he'd known from within the hospital. Between the colour scheme of clinical blue to off white, there was only one colour which stood out to him.

Gabriel smiled, before looking dead at Sam, "I like hazel".

•••••••

"It's definitely Gabriel, sir", Raphael swirled a glass of expensive port from his position in the chair of the rich politician's heaven, watching as Hester and her two other recruits reported back after their scout mission on his wayward brother. Raphael had postponed most of his other expeditions and missions to favour this one. He still wasn't completely sure it wasn't a trick or trap from either Lucifer or Gabriel, so had sent out another, more equipped scout group in the hopes that they could provide a more detailed description of what they were up against. Right now, however, they were proving to be as useless as an armless jumper, "So I've gathered. Have you figured out his reasons for being there? Or why he's given a clear indication of his location after 2000 years of silence?", the archangel asked impatiently.

The angels shifted nervously, and the male one to the left of Hester spoke up, "all due respect, we believed approaching a potentially dangerous archangel with only the three of us was dangerous, possibly suicidal, sir, and wanted to give you more time or the option for larger numbers before we made a move". Raphael's expression turned stoney, and the three angels shrunk back, "did I tell you to scout it out, or did I tell you to hover back and provide me with no new information?", Raphael was working himself into a rage, and the angels knew it, "I should smite you all on the spot and send more skilled angels in your place, impertinent fools!", he snarled.

Hester stepped forwards, sending her subordinates a glare to tell them to shut up, "we will approach him straight away, sir. Sorry for Ephreil's Idiocy". Ephreil's shoulders hunched over, and he shuffled his feet at the withering glare sent to him by both his commander and the archangel. "My deepest apologies for my impertinence, sir ", he mumbled.

Raphael snorted, "apology accepted. Provide results next time, or no more second chances". The archangel took a sip of his port, and by the time he looked up, they were gone.

•••••••

"So I basically spent my childhood in the back of the impala or in cheap motels", Sam explained, picking at the loose threads on the bed between his legs with one hand. The other had entwined itself with Gabriel's, they had silently agreed that it was too awkward for the smaller man to constantly try contort his wrist to hold Sam's arm, and it was simply more comfortable for both of them.

Gabriel listened from his position lying down on the bed with his head in the pillow and legs stretched out behind Sam, who was sitting with his legs off the edge of the bed. "You weren't happy then, even doing all those crazy, impossible things that other kids would kill to do, you just wanted to be normal?", Sam shrugged in reply, "yeah, I guess I just wanted to be a normal kid with a mom and a dad and a big brother who showed you how to play baseball, not cock a shotgun" .

Gabriel mused for a moment, before answering, "you know, I think that 6 months ago, I could have undone everything that happened to you and given you that life". Gabriel tried to sound nonchalant, but the thought of never meeting Sam, never knowing him as himself, not as Loki, sent a spike of fear through him. Sam smiled, "I bet you could. But I don't think it would make a difference, I'm still stuck in this mess, as is Dean. We'd still have our lives ruined eventually".

Gabriel sat up on his elbows, changing the grip of their hands, "Why? What do you mean?", he asked curiously. Sam blanched, maybe his policy of truth and only the truth wasn't the best idea, white lies may be in order, "nothing. You'll remember soon anyway". The smaller man frowned at the dismissal, Sam's words seeming too ominous and serious, "doesn't sound like nothing", he said suspiciously. Sam aimed a tense smile towards the other man, "it's not important. Right now, we need to focus on you, is there anything else you can think of which might be important? Anything at all?".

Gabriel was suddenly plunged into a strange feeling of urgency. He felt as if he was forgetting something, something really important, but he could quite grasp it. It was something black and endless, and it was hovering just out if his reach. After a moment of chasing the quickly receding feeling, he dismissed it, "nope, I've told you everything".


	6. Tall, Dark and Handsome

"Don't you like me anymore?", the grey-faced girl stepped towards the professor, "don't you want me?". Gabriel didn't even need to check anymore, he knew he was dreaming. He watched as Loki lounged invisibly in the office chair behind them both, with a good enough view of the trickster scene to fully control his apparition's actions.

Gabriel didn't notice it for a while, ten seconds at least, but this Loki seemed different. It took him at least twice as long to pin-point what it was. There was no direction. This trickster's actions had no point, it was almost as if he was simply killing assholes for the sake of killing them. Gabriel knew by the cold and distant way his past self glowered at the professor that he wasn't even trying to save him. He was absolutely sure of his idea when his body didn't even flinch as the creation, without warning, launched herself at the professor, and pushed him out the window.

Loki clicked his fingers in time for him to lock up the hall, and walk a few steps, before the sickening crunch behind him announced the professors arrival and departure.

His past self seemed content with just leaving at that, he had left everything spotlessly traceless, waited a couple of nights, and was in the middle of buying a ticket at the bus station when he stopped mid-sentence. Gabriel was pretty sure he had been about to leave when something caught his eye.

A black, Classic American car drove past the bus stops, and the car was enough of reason to pause if anyone asked, but that wasn't what had stopped him. Loki's eyes had zeroed in on the driver and passenger. "Now, that isn't something you see every day", he muttered incredulously. The car continued, it's occupants obvious of the supernatural being staring after their car with interest, and turned the corner. Gabriel had only caught a flash of what looked like a much younger version of Dean Winchester as the vehicle had passed, and the passenger's messy brown hair had been the only thing visible whilst his face was buried in a leather-bound book, but Gabriel didn't need to see his face, he knew that colour anywhere.

"Hey, mister? You gonna buy a ticket or what? There's a queue you know", the obnoxious, squeaky voice of the man in the ticket booth grated on Loki's eardrums. He clicked beneath the window, "No, I've just remembered something I've got to do", he smiled falsely at the teenager, "have a nice day". The kid shifted uncomfortably in his seat as his body left. Gabriel could've sworn that when Loki clicked, it was to give the kid crabs.

That was the new thing, it seemed that at periods in his dreams, Gabriel would catch glimpses of what he'd been feeling. Swift impressions, but the stronger he'd been feeling about it at the time, the more powerful the impression. A sneaky thought slipped through every now and then, though (which explained his surety about the crabs).

This seemed pretty far back; just looking at Dean concreted his notion, the lack of stubble and hard lines on the hunter's face was a dead giveaway. Gabriel could hear his past thought process, 'shouldn't stay. But the vessels!', the small impressions now had Gabriel's complete attention, Sam had mentioned something about that before he clammed up, 'to piss off Mikey, one look can't hurt'. Gabriel distinctly realised that Loki hadn't said either Sam or Dean's names in his thought process, and there had been no recognition leaking though the time barrier when his past self had spotted the classic Chevy.

Gabriel struggled to grasp what this all meant; was this the first time he met the Winchester's? A twist of excitement coiled inside him. Loki snapped his fingers and he was in the back of the impala. "Name: Arthur Cox, uh, says here he was a professor, some big-shot ethics and morality author on the side", Sam's voice filled the car, but neither hunter noticed the blonde haired man listening in from the back. Gabriel supposed he must be invisible, it wasn't uncommon when Loki was performing one of his tricks. "Yeah?", Dean glanced at his brother, "how'd he die?". Sam peered at his sheet, "says he fell out the window of his office, but, apparently the campus is haunted", he sat back with raised eyebrows, "huh". Dean thrummed a fast drum beat onto his steering wheel, "sounds like our sorta gig, Sammy".

"Yeah, we'd better check it out. Head for 'Crawford Hall'. And Dean?", the older brother glanced towards Sam as he paused, "Don't call me Sammy".

Gabriel watched as the Winchesters pulled up to the site of his latest trick, "this the place?", Dean asked gruffly, "uh, yep, this is it", Sam replied. Dean squinted at the building for a moment, "doesn't look very haunted", he mumbled. Sam shot him a look, "ghosts can inhabit anywhere, Dean. It doesn't have to look haunted to be haunted", Dean glared back at him for a second, "I know that. You don't have to get all college boy on me".

"Jerk", "bitch".

Gabriel pulled his arms into the sleeves of the janitor costume he'd snapped into existence. The brothers had run off to get costumes too, they'd mumbled something about electricians, and driven off. Gabriel would've laughed if he could; despite them not knowing it, the Winchesters had just gotten into costume to dupe someone who was also duping them in a costume. Oh, that was a hard one to get your head around.

Gabriel had watched as Loki snapped his apartment into existence and created his usual table of cavities. Then, looking for inspiration, he'd taken a brisk walk to the corner store to buy a paper; apparently, even a trickster god ran out of ideas sometimes.

Finally, Loki seemed ready for another trick. He'd set up a few hoops for the hunters to jump through, and this was all starting to look very promising. The TV was playing in the corner of the room on a low volume, and again, instead of the usual channels, he'd tuned into channel Winchester. He settled back into a comfy worn armchair, before glancing around the too-quiet apartment. A snap later, an eager little jack-Russell was wiggling happily at his heels. Gabriel slapped his leg, and the dog bounced up to settle on his lap.

"Yeah, we both had the professor for ethics and morality", a bored sounding voice filled the room as Gabriel set his attention on what was happening on screen. Gabriel was trying to pay attention to what Loki had thought, he kept catching glimpses. The taller Winchester was interviewing a frat boy, Sammy, he seemed to remember the other one calling him. The boy in question had a rather mean look about him, and Gabriel recognised Loki's perk of interest immediately. "Yeah, so why'd you think he did it?", Sammy asked.

The girl leant in conspiratorially, "who knows? I mean? He was tenured, wife and kids. And his book is, like, a really big deal", Gabriel could feel his IQ dropping just listening to this girl, "but then", her eyes glittered excitedly, relishing the moment, "who's to say it was a suicide?".

The irritating frat boy scoffed, "Jen, come on", father, Gabriel could just feel Loki's irritation toward the boy seeping through the memory. He allowed himself to be swept up in Loki's thoughts and emotions again. The one called Sammy faked surprise, "well, what else could it be?", Jen took the bait completely, "well, you know about Crawford Hall?", Sam frowned, his bottom lip pushed out, "no, I don't actually". Loki thought Sammy was very attractive, especially with his bottom lip pushed out just so. If he hadn't had so many failed relationships with mortals he might've given it a try.

Curtis butted in again, "It's a bunch of crap, it's a total urban legend", and Sammy completely ignored him, at least the man had taste. He wasn't so lucky about the Jen, who felt the need to defend her rumour, "Yeah well, Heather's mom went to school here, and she knew the girl", of course, that made it completely valid to a gullible college girl. Sam was struggling to keep up, "wait, what girl?", Jen regained her confidence, once again sure her rumour was going to be appreciated, "Thirty years ago, this girl was having an affair with some professor. He broke it off, she jumped out the window and killed herself", the relish with which she said the words was slightly inappropriate for the topic, but Sammy seemed to take it all in his stride. The other one, Loki noticed, was not so bright, Sam was asking all the right questions, whereas the blonde one was sitting at the bar chatting up some college girl.

"You know her name?", Sam asked, and Jen frowned, upset that she couldn't help her new crush, "No. But they say she jumped from room six-six-nine. Get it? You turn the nine upside down?". Loki chuckled, a small test, just to start off the ludicrousness. Curtis laughed, but Sam just nodded, and that was enough for Jen, "So now she haunts the building. And anyone who sees her? They don't live to tell the tale".

"Well if no one lives to tell the tale, how does the tale get told?", Loki was really starting to hate this Curtis guy, he wasn't just a buzz kill, he was an annoying buzz kill. The trickster was sure he could pull up something bad about him, give him a little taste of humility. He wasn't the only one, apparently, "Curtis! Shut up!", Jen was clearly feeling like the frat boy was ruining her chances with Sam.

Maybe the idiot had his uses.

Sam smiled uncomfortably and got up, "You know what, uh - Thanks a lot guys. Excuse me".

Oh god, Loki hadn't had this much fun in so many lifetimes. There were tears (tears!) streaming down his face as the two brothers argued. Weren't these guys meant to be hunters? Who knew Mike and Lucy's vessels would be so darn fun! They'd radioed in for backup a few days ago, and both men were clearly at the end of their tether when the doorbell finally rang.

Sam bent down to look through the peephole, before opening the door, "Hey Bobby". Gabriel's interest perked. This was the man Loki'd impersonated in his earlier dream, another 'hunter', he presumed. "Hey boys", Bobby said gruffly, "it's good to see you again so soon", the one called Dean got up and walked over awkwardly. Sam shook his hand, "yeah, uh, thanks for getting here so fast, come on in", Dean just growled a heartfelt, "thank god you're here", under his breath.

Bobby sat down and gave them an assessing look, "So um, what didn't you want to talk to me on the phone about?". Sam squirmed, "It's this job we're working. We- We weren't sure you'd believe us", Dean sent his brother a dirty look, which didn't pass Bobby unnoticed. The older man's brow crinkled, "well, I can believe a lot". Sam glanced at his brother, "Yeah, no, no, it's just, we've never seen anything like it -", Dean butted in, "not even close", "-and we thought we could use some fresh eyes", Sam continued.

Bobby settled down, trying to get comfortable, "why don't you start at the beginning?".

"I don't sound like that, Dean!", Sam's voice echoed petulantly out of the TV's speakers. Loki grinned, you'd have thought two 'experienced' hunters would at least have an idea by now.

Dean glared at his brother out the corner of his eye, "that's what you sound like to me".

Bobby had seen enough, "Okay. What's going on with you two?", Sam squirmed, "Nothing, n- it's nothing". Bobby wasn't stupid, "No, come on", he glanced between them, "You're bickering like an old married couple". Dean huffed and stood up, stomping towards the kitchenette, "No, see married couples can get divorced. Me and him, we're like, uh, Siamese twins".

"It's conjoined twins!", Sam yelled in aspiration, but Dean just turned to Bobby with a well perfected 'I'm a long-suffering older brother' look, "See what I mean?". Sam groaned, "Look, it- we've just been on the road for too long. Tight quarters, all that. Don't worry about it", Bobby gave him a look, "Okay".

"So anyway. We figured it might be a haunting, so we went to check out the scene of the crime".

••••••••  
Loki grinned up eagerly at the taller brother, "I've been mopping this floor for six years". It hadn't taken him five minutes to snap himself to the Hall just in time to see the black impala cruise round the corner. The trickster, gestured for the men to go into the office he'd just opened, and turned on the light, "there you go guys". Loki surveyed the room he'd been in only a few days ago, before turning back to Sam. Jesus was that man pretty. The trickster smirked playfully when he caught Sam's eye, but the taller man just returned the smile platonically and pulled out a clumsily-put-together EMF reader. Loki internally rolled his eyes, but played along, "What the heck's that for?".

Sam looked up in surprise, "Just to find a wire in the walls", well, count Gabriel impressed, Sam could lie just as well as Loki, if not better. The trickster appeared just as surprised, "Huh, wow", Loki internally shook his head to get himself to remember the plan, "Not sure why you're wiring up this office. Not gonna do the professor much good". The previously quiet, blonde, stubbly one finally seemed to start paying attention, "Why's that?", he butted in. Loki didn't look away from Sam, "He's dead", he shrugged bluntly, "Oh, what happened?", Dean stepped into Gabriel's line of sight, effectively blocking Loki's view. The trickster glared, but played along, "He went out that window", he pointed to the window behind Sam. Loki wasn't lying, the man really had gone out that window, he may be amoral, but he never said he wasn't honest.

"Yeah? Were you working that night?", Loki turned his head back to Sam, eyes fixed on his and brows raised playfully, "I'm the one who found him", he smirked lowly. Again, not another lie. "You see it happen?", Sam questioned, and Loki didn't even care that he was just playing along to get the Janitor's information.

The younger brother really was too pretty for his own good, and the trickster found himself memorising his features. If he couldn't have Sam, at least he could have a creation that looked like him, hazel eyes, Loki noted. Dean had lost interest, and was now stuffing his face with a bowl of pistachios that had been left on the counter, Loki blanched when he saw him, but answered Sam, "Nope. i just saw him come up here, and uh… well", Sam swallowed the bait, "and what?". The trickster averted his eyes dramatically, "He wasn't alone". Okay, Loki admitted to himself, that truth had been a bit more vague, but technically that was true; his back had been turned when the unfortunate professor hit the ground.

Dean had good hearing and the worst timing, it seemed, "'oo waf 'e wiv?". When he turned around Loki was greeted with the unpleasant sight of the older Winchester with far too many pistachios in his mouth. "He was with a young lady. I told the cops about her, but uh, I guess they never found her", Gabriel's memory shrugged blasély, but Sam was quick off the mark, "You saw this girl go in, huh? But did you ever see her come out?". Count Loki impressed, pretty and smart? There had to be a downside here somewhere, "Now that you mention it, no", he mumbled coyly, Sam was on a roll, "You ever see her before, around?".

"Well, not her", the Trickster bit out, eyes cold. He was lucky the Winchesters didn't notice his momentary slip up, sloppy, sloppy Trickster. "wuat 'oo yoo mean?", Dean sprayed pistachio across the room as he tried to talk, earning a appalled glare from his brother. "I don't mean to cast aspersions on a dead guy, but uh . . . Mister Morality here? He brought a lot of girls up here. Got more ass than a toilet seat", that was a clue, time to see just how good this comedy duo was. Dean chuckled at the remark, the true tip going completely over his head, and Sam was so embarrassed by his older brothers antics that he was only half listening. Loki grinned, even if they didn't get it the first time, that just meant he could have more fun with them in the long run. Sam turned back, remembering something, "One more thing. This building, it only has four stories, right?". clever, clever Sammy, "Yeah", the trickster replied lightly. "So there wouldn't be a room six-six-nine?". Loki managed to suppress his laughter, "'Course not. Why'd you ask?", Sam shrugged, "Just curious. Thanks".

Loki wiggled his eyebrows at the brothers as a goodbye, and saw them out.  
Back in Loki's room, the blonde had lounged out in his armchair, eating profiteroles whilst listening to the brothers idle chitchat. he wasn't above using outside prompts for his ideas, after all, and that one about Sam's computer was gold. He could so easily turn this back onto the brothers.

Chuckling and pleased with himself, Loki stuffed two pastries into his mouth in rapid succession.

Gabriel could tell by the look on Bobby's face that he didn't see what all the fuss was about, "But did you dig up anything about the building? Or on the suicidal co-ed?", he asked patronisingly. Sam ran an aspirated hand through his hair, "No! The history's clean!".

"Then its not a haunting", Bobby said slowly, "Maybe not", Dean grumbled, "But to tell you the truth, we're not really sure". "Whadaya mean, You're 'not sure'", Bobby frowned, Sam cringed, "Well... its weird". "What's weird?", Dean fidgeted with his frayed jeans, "This next part, we uh, we didn't see it happen ourselves exactly, but it's pretty friggin weird. Even for us".

"Aliens?", Bobby's voice yelped through the TV's speakers, and Loki grinned around a mouthful of Danish.

"Yeah", Dean mumbled tiredly, watching Bobby think for a second, "...Aliens?", the older hunter reiterated. Dean scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "Yeah", Bobby sent both brothers a wary look, "my whole life I've never found evidence of an honest-to-god abduction, its all just cranks and pranks". "That's what we thought", Sam grumbled, "But… we figured we'd at least talk to the guy".

Loki remembered this. The frat boy, the one who'd been a constant annoyance to the brother's investigation into the haunting? Well, the trickster had done a bit of digging and it turned out his instincts had been right, Curtis enjoyed sending his team off on long, painful drills as he sat back and relaxed. The control freak was all set up to become a complete sadist, and being the kind individual he was, Loki decided to take him down a peg and off that road.

Dean was sat next to the rather pale frat boy, who had three shot glasses full of a suspicious purple liquid in front of him. Gabriel located Sam, who was standing by the table looking concerned. "Hey, you ought to give these purple nurples a shot", Dean said with a straight face, Sam completely ignored him and addressed the frat boy, "So, what happened, Curtis?". Curtis appeared to shrink into his seat slightly, "You won't believe me, nobody does", he mumbled. "Give us a chance", Sam encouraged. Curtis' eyes widened, before finding Sam's, "I do not want this in the papers", he growled, "Off the record, then", Dean pressed.

Curtis wrapped his arms around himself, "I, uh.. I blacked out, and… I lost time, and when I woke up, I didn't know where I was", Sam leaned in, "Then what?". Curtis went a slate grey, and lowered his voice, "They did tests on me. And, uh…", He grabbed the shot and downed it, "They, uh… They probed me". Loki let out a peal of laughter as the corners of Sam's mouth trembled desperately, Dean simply thought he'd heard wrong, "They probed you?", he asked. Curtis went red, "Yeah, they probed me!", his voice broke as he whispered, "Again and a-again and- and again", he threw back another shot, "and again and again and again… and then one more time". Dean winced, "Yikes", Curtis let out a breath, "and that's not even the worst of it", he confided. Dean laughed raucously, "How could it get any worse", he looked between Sam and Curtis for support, "Some alien made you his bitch!", he grinned. Neither Sam nor Curtis smirked back, and Dean stopped smiling.

"They.. they made me…", both Sam and Dean leaned in, trying to hear the last of Curtis' story whilst he choked over his words, "Slow dance!".

Okay, Gabriel relented, that last one, with the frat boy? That had been funny. Maybe a little over the top, but still, in retrospect? Funny. Bobby hadn't quite got it yet, though, "You guys are exaggerating, huh?". Sam shook his head rapidly, eyes wide, "No, no", Bobby grimaced, "then this frat boys just nuts!" he exclaimed. Dean winced, "We're not so sure".

Loki knew the scorch mark had been a good idea.

"I'm telling you, Dean, this was made by some kind of jet engine!", Dean just sent his brother a withering look, "You mean a saucer-shaped jet engine?". "What else could it be?", Sam seemed bemused, not wanting to believe something ludicrous, but clearly battling with his hunter urges, the ones that say, I thought werewolves weren't real either.

"What the hell", Dean muttered. "I don't know", Sam replied, Dean whirled around, arms waving, completely at a loss, "Seriously, dude- What the hell!".

Loki watched as the boys tried to piece together their information. "Doesn't make a lick of sense", Dean muttered, Of course it doesn't, Gabriel thought, they're trying to put together a puzzle without all the pieces. "But hey, at least there's one connection". Sam hmmed as he searched through his shoulder bag, "between what?" he asked distractedly. Dean leant forward, proud of his intellectual breakthrough, "The victims", he looked at Sam excitedly, "The professor and the frat guy; they're both dicks!".

Sam was now on his stomach, trying to look under the bed, "that's a connection?", he wheezed, heaving himself up and looking around the room. Dean finally picked up on his brother's distraction, crossing his arms, he hunched his shoulders in Sam's direction, "You got anything better to go on? I'd love to hear it". Sam lifted up his pillow, "Where's my laptop?".

"I don't know", Dean frowned slightly, before continuing, "Think about it. A philandering professor gets a dead girl. A pledge master gets hazed". Sam threw down the bag he'd been second checking, "I left it in here!". Loki practically clapped his hands, everything was about to kick off!

"You obviously didn't. I mean, these punishments, they're almost poetic. Actually, it'd be more like a limerick, but still-", Sam clenched his fists and advanced on Dean, "Okay, hilarious. Ha ha. Where'd you hide it?". "Why would I take your computer?", Dean scowled, but Sam wasn't going to be deterred, "Because no one else could have, Dean! We keep the door locked. We never let any maids in", Dean clearly wasn't fond of having his rare ideas ignored, and was especially annoyed by people accusing him of doing things he hadn't done. he liked to get recognised for his pranks, god damnit! "Looks like you lost it, Poindexter", he growled.

Sam turned around to compose himself, before pointing an accusatory finger at his brother, "Dude, you know something? I put up with a lot from you", Dean sat back, "What are you talking about, I'm a joy to be around". Sam was pacing now, "Yeah? Your dirty socks in the sink, your food in the fridge-", "What's wrong with my food", "Its not food anymore, Dean! Its Darwinism-", "I like it", "All I ask from you, the one thing, is that you don't mess with my stuff!". Years of knowing each other allowed Dean to know exactly how to push his younger brother's buttons. After a short pause full of heavy breathing from Sam, Dean continued, "You done?".

Sam exploded, Loki was almost scared, actually, "You know?", the finger was doing some vicious air-jabbing by now, "How would you feel if i screwed with the impala?". Dean's eyes narrowed, "It'd be the last thing you ever did!".

Loki's grin grew impossibly wide, these guys were just full of ideas!

After some more bickering in the hotel room to Bobby, Sam finally told the older hunter about the third victim, " Now, we, we didn't see this one ourselves, either. We kind of put it together from the evidence. But this guy - He was, uh, he was a research scientist. Animal testing", Dean cut in with his theory, "Yeah, you know, a dick!", he gave Sam a aspirated look, "Which fits the pattern".

Sam gingerly told Bobby about their 'Alligator in the Sewer' theory, and showed him the belly scale they'd found on the mangled remains of the scientist. That's when they'd decided to call Bobby, according to Dean.

"We decided to search the sewer anyway", Sam looked lost, "So we split up, each taking one end of campus". Bobby shook his head, "D'you find anything?".

Dean glared at his brother, "Yeah I found something, just not in the sewer", Sam threw up his hands, "For Christ's sake, Dean! I didn't touch the Impala!".

Dean ignored his brother, talking directly to Bobby, "You showed up about an hour after that". Bobby Spoke evenly, "I'm surprised at you two. I really am", both brother's pouted, "Sam, first off, Dean did not steal your computer", Sam tried to interrupt, but Bobby held out a hand, "shh! And, Dean, Sam did not touch your car-", "yeah!", Sam snarled defensively, "-And if you two bothered to pull your heads outta your asses, it all would have been pretty clear".

"What!", Dean cried, "what your dealing with", Bobby spelt out. The Winchesters both faltered, "uh..", "I got nothing", Dean muttered, Sam winced and replied, "me neither". Bobby rolled his eyes, "you got a trickster on your hands!". Loki licked his fingers clean, "took them long enough", he mumbled, amused.

Dean slapped his leg, exclaiming, "that's what I thought!", Sam started, outraged, "What! No you didn't!". Loki's opinion of this Dean was also rising, at least he could appreciate a good joke. Bobby scratched the too of his head, "I gotta tell you, you guys were the biggest clue", he glanced between them, brows raised. "How so?", Sam asked, Bobby fixed him a serious look, "These things create chaos and mischief as easy as breathing, and it's got you so turned around and at each other's throats, you can't even think straight!", the brothers sent each other a guilty glance.

"The laptop..", Sam breathed deeply, "the tires", Dean groaned, Bobby continued, "It knows you're onto him, and it's been playing you like fiddles". Dean shook his head, "So, what is it, what, what, spirit, demon, what?", Bobby gave them a indecipherable look, " Well, more like demigods, really. There's Loki in Scandinavia. There's Anansi in West Africa. Dozens of them", Loki squinted, technically, they'd all been him, but hey, details, right? "They're immortal, and they can create things out of thin air. Things as real as you and me. Make them vanish just as quick". Bobby had a 'this-is-really-bad' look on his face, which was apparently contagious, as both Winchesters had soon adopted it, "You mean like an angry spirit or an alien or an alligator", Dean growled.

Bobby inclined his head slightly, "The victims fit the M.O., too. Tricksters target the high and the mighty, knock them down a peg, usually with a sense of humour - deadly pranks, things like that". Dean had a look of horrified revelation on his face, "Bobby, what do these things look like?", the older hunter shrugged, "lots of things, but human mostly". Dean turned his look to his brother, "and what human do we know that's been at ground zero this whole time?".

It seemed the 'horrified-revelation' look was contagious as well.

Loki had seen enough apparently, Gabriel watched as he sit he off the TV and opened his magazine, directly onto the page about the alien love slave, "Oh, that's a good one", he muttered, turning the page. Out of the corner of his eye, Loki watched as the dog he'd created scratched fruitlessly at a wrapper. Well, he could take a hint, the trickster whistled, and the Jack Russell bounded towards him, "come here", he crooned, picking it up, "could you eat? I could eat". Loki got to his feet, the magazine sliding off his lap and hitting the floor in a heap. Loki plodded towards the kitchen, a champagne flute in one hand, the dog following joyously. The kitchen table was groaning under the weight of the sweets on too of it. Every type of pudding, from pancakes to Pavlova, were laid out in the lavish spread. The Jack Russell sat on one of the stools, wiggling, but still, the pause in movement just highlighted how empty the flat was.

The trickster stared around for a moment, before snapping his fingers. Two scantily clad women reappeared next to him, and Gabriel watched as he dipped his fingers into some whipped cream, and fed it to the brunette with the hazel eyes.

Loki locked the gate with the key attached to his belt, it was hard to act nonchalant with two pairs of eyes burning holes in his back. "Sorry I'm dragging a little ass today, boys. Had quite the night last night", he turned to look at them, "Lots of sex, if you catch my drift", actually, Gabriel had watched as Loki finished off his puddings, gave one last half-hearted wink at his creations, and headed off to bed, alone. If the trickster felt the need to lie, Gabriel could afford him the liberty.

"Yeah, hard not to. Listen, we won't be long", Dean muttered. Loki pretended not to notice as Dean made some sort of hand signal to his brother behind his back, "We just need to check a couple offices up on three", Dean continued. Loki shrugged, "No problem".

Sam groaned and hit the guardrail, "I, uh, forgot something in the truck. You know what? I'll catch up with you guys", Dean didn't turn around as he spoke, "Okay".

Loki lead Dean up to floor three, trying to appear oblivious to the accusing eyes on him at all times. After a few minutes of the older Winchester shuffling around the offices, Sam reappeared, "everything in order up here, Dean?". The man in question looked up from the crouched position in which he was examining a socket, and pulled himself up, "Yeah, I'm done here", with one last dirty look at the trickster, he marched out. Sam gave a half hearted wave, and Loki winked at him before he followed his brother.

Gabriel watched as Loki moved to the window, parting the drapes slightly as he waited. Not two minutes later, the brothers emerged into the car park, arguing furiously. The trickster muttered a few words and the boy's argument rang out in his ears as if they were right next to him. "What? Are you really still pissed at me 'cause of what the trickster did?", Sam yelled, stopping in his tracks, Dean kept walking as he growled, "You been a tight ass long before that trickster showed up". Sam ran after him, "Look, just...stay here, keep an eye on the janitor. I'll go to his place to see if I can find any actual evidence before you go barging in and staking the man!", Loki felt a blossom of warmth as Sam defended him. It didn't bother him that he was wrong, it was the thought that counts, "Just wait till I get back, okay?", Sam grabbed his brothers arm, "Okay?".

Dean's eyes glowered at the ground, "Okay!", he snarled. Loki watched as Sam got into the impala, fixed Dean a harsh glare, and drove off.

Dean stayed in the car park, surprisingly, until it was dark. Just when Gabriel thought the older hunter would wait until his brother returned, he swore a final time, and turned towards the building. Loki turned away with raised eyebrows, show time, huh?

Loki retreated to the theatre, it seemed a fitting place for the final encounter, after all. The trickster sat down in the back row, and snapped his fingers. A round, crimson bed sat on the stage, a gaudy rotating disco ball above it. Another snap and the two girls from last night lay sprawled across the duvet, and a clone of the trickster wiggled his eyebrows from the third row, slouched down, and peeled a chocolate bar. Loki looked around critically, before a final snap left Barry White's voice crooning over the speakers.

Finally satisfied, Gabriel watched as Loki's body appeared to melt away. Considering the remaining feeling in the tricksters arms and legs, he deduced that Loki had simply made himself invisible. Not a moment too soon either, because that very second, Dean opened the doors. Gabriel thought that Loki could've gotten away with staying visible, considering the way Dean was staring at the women on the bed. The hunter walked towards the bed, eyes wide. When the older Winchester got to the stage, both girls crawled towards him, smiling seductively, "we've been waiting for you, Dean", the brunette crooned.

"Y-your not real", Dean croaked, his eyes lingering on the women's breasts longingly. "Trust me, sugar, it's gonna feel real", the older Winchester whimpered as the blonde came closer, "come on, let us give you a massage", she raked her eyes down his body. Loki chuckled quietly in the back as a look of lust followed by anguish clouded his face, "Wha... You know, I'm a - I'm a sucker for a happy ending. Really, I am, but...", Dean seemed to take a breath, "I-I'm gonna have to pass".

"They're a peace offering", the Loki clone smirked, "I know what you and your brother do. I've been around a while. Run into your kind before", it opened a chocolate bar and waited for an answer. "Well, then you know that I... can't let you just keep hurting people", Dean said imploringly, the Loki clone groaned, "Come on! Those people got what was coming to them. Hoisted on their own petards. But you and Sam - I like you. I do", Loki was actually being honest, Gabriel noted, "So treat yourself, long as you want. Just long enough for me to move on to the next town".

Dean's face hardened, "yeah, I don't think I can let you do that", it was obvious that the older Winchester wasn't going to play along with Loki's ploy, but for some reason, the trickster didn't seem all that broken up about having his plan foiled. It was as if he'd expected to have to do this, "I don't wanna hurt you. And you know that I can", the clone shrugged, but even his words rang hollow to Gabriel, it seemed less like Loki was trying to warn them, and more like he was just acting out a script. That's seemed to get to Dean a bit though, make Loki seem like less of a monster, because the older Winchester suddenly looked pained, "Look, man, I - I got to tell you, I dig your style, all right? I mean", he chucked, "I do. I mean", he puffed out his cheeks, grinning, "... and the slow-dancing alien?", the Loki clone flailed his arms laughing, pleased at the appreciation, "One of my personal favourites. Yeah", it grinned. Dean laughed again, before his face fell, "but uh, I can't let you go", the trickster clone shrugged, "Too bad. Like I said, I like you", his eyes darkened, "but Sam was right. You shouldn't have come alone".

Dean's face split into a dark grin, "well, I'll agree with you there", the doors banged shut. The real Loki spin round in his seat, at the same time as the clone, in time to see the other two hunters standing there with a matching pair if sharpened stakes. Gabriel sensed surprise, curiosity and a little bit of genuine interest seep into the trickster as he reassessed his initial impression of the hunters, "That fight you guys had outside - that was a trick?", Dean smiled, "Hm. Not bad", Loki raised his eyebrows, "But you want to see a real trick?".

SNAP

An inhuman growling echoed around the room as a masked chainsaw-wielding redneck launched himself at Sam. It sort of pained Loki to destroy such a pretty face, but hey, more fish in the sea, right? At the same time, the pretty brunette punched Dean in the jaw, making the stake sail off to land behind the stage somewhere. "Ooh!", the clone mocked, wincing theatrically. Gabriel watched as Bobby threw himself at the creation attacking Sam, got his stake sawn in half, and all the whilst the fake trickster was laughing. The clone stuffed a sandwich into his mouth as he watched the blonde hooker throw a particularly mean punch that sent Dean flying into the row of seats in front of the clone. "Dean, dean, dean", it mocked, "I really didn't want to have to do this-", quickly, Sam caught his brothers eye, and whilst the crazed chainsaw man went for Bobby again, chucked the last remaining stake in Dean's direction.

Gabriel watched as a stoic Loki did nothing as his clone was stabbed through the chest. "Me neither", Dean growled as he twisted the stake deeper into what he thought was the trickster. The two hookers vanished alongside the man with the chainsaw, and Loki ensured that his clone fell back into the chairs with a satisfying thump when the stake was pulled out.

Sam, Dean and Bobby checked each other over, then made a hasty exit whilst mumbling something about not wanting to be caught with the body. No need to worry about that, Gabriel thought, as Loki sauntered thoughtfully over to the dead clone. Dean wouldn't have been able to 'kill' it if that stake hadn't been conveniently thrown in his direction. Just how often did those pesky vessels almost get themselves skewered anyway? Really, Loki thought, he'd be doing his brothers a service if he just kept an eye on them, popped in every once in a while.

Gabriel was pretty sure that was the encounter over. It had been at least twelve hours since the three hunters had sauntered off, sure they had another supernatural kill under their belt, but for some reason, Gabriel still hadn't woken up. Loki was just lying on a couch, on what Gabriel was sure was an alternate plane of existence, frowning at the ceiling.

Usually, he could tell what Loki was thinking, or at least get a good impression of his feelings, but at that moment, the trickster was indecipherable. It took another twenty minutes before the subject of the tricksters musings came into focus, the vessels. In particular, the tall one. Loki had gone a good couple of centuries being satisfied by his own creations. Father, his last relationship had ended with him escaping by the skin of his teeth as his partner spat out curses and hurled fire after him - Kali had been damn hot - but for some strange reason, he couldn't get his head around this Sam. Every time he expected the man to do something, he'd do the exact opposite (stake-throwing was a good example), plus, he was beautiful. It only made sense that the most captivating and brightest angel ever created would have an equally as captivating vessel, but Loki couldn't have imagined the human would have this sort of effect on him.

He needed more time, more information. Purpose rekindled, Loki finally sat up; he was going to study a certain Sam Winchester.

"I'm getting tired of this", somehow, the voice managed to sound cavernous and petulant at the same time and Gabriel found himself unable to enjoy the weightless feeling with the splitting headache he was nursing. He decided that if he ignored it, it would shut up. "You're no fun when you can't rememb-", it paused, as if it had been interrupted, but Gabriel was sure that they were the only ones here. Suddenly, it spoke again, it's voice quick and strained, "I need you to remember me, but not now. We need to get out of here. You don't understand. We're in danger", it said urgently. Gabriel was still catching up, "How is this all possible? This is crazy", he mumbled. The atmosphere around him shifted impatiently, the air crackling with urgency, "Gabriel. I'll explain later. You need to wake up. You need to wake up NOW!".


	7. Revelations

Amnesia Chapter 7

Gabriel sat straight up in bed, and came face to face with three people. All thoughts of the dream flew out if his head, he could think about that later, ponder over it when he had time to remember all the details, but he had to deal with the immediate threat first. He had no idea who they were, or how they got there, but he recognised them immediately.

"Muriel, Grayer and Senriel", Gabriel heard himself speak before he registered he'd done it. But what surprised him was how his voice sounded. It wasn't his voice; it was stronger, more confident and authoritative, and the blonde was sure that he couldn't sound like that again if he tried. He hadn't known he could sound like that at all.

Despite this, the three people in front of Gabriel dropped to one knee at the sound of his voice, and lowered their heads. The woman, Muriel, stood up and spoke, "Brother, we thought you were dead", the way she spoke to Gabriel reminded him of the way a man would address royalty, "where have you been?".

Gabriel sighed and lay back down again. There was no use getting worked up about a load of craziness his mind had conspired. These people were clearly hallucinations.

It all made sense once he'd calmed down and thought about it; it was just another trick that his brain had thought up without him. He decided to tell them he'd figured it out at least, he might as well let his melon know that he wasn't as stupid as it clearly thought he was.

"Look, sister", he said sarcastically, blatantly poking fun at her use of the word, "I'm trying to sleep here. Even Lucifer has the decency to let a man sleep", he mumbled into the wall he was facing.

Muriel sent a quick glance at the two men behind her, "sir, there is no trace of your brother here". Gabriel snorted, still half asleep, "not yet there isn't. He'll come, don't you worry. Now go away, I can't be bothered with more than doubling the number of hallucinations I already have", Gabriel closed his eyes and snuggled further down into his covers, "just when Sam thought it was getting better", he mumbled sleepily.

"Sam? Sam Winchester? You've been conspiring with a Winchester?", Muriel's voice was aghast, and Gabriel felt a bubble of irritation, there was nothing wrong with Sam. He was getting tired of her quickly, "Obviously. As a figment of my imagination, you should know this".

"Sir, we are not imaginary", Muriel took another step towards the bump in the bed in front of her, before realisation dawned in her eyes. "You are not well".

Gabriel sighed, and turned over. 

She wasn't going away. 

"Give the woman a standing ovation! Why else would a person be in this place? Of course I'm sick", Muriel just looked lost. "I mean no disrespect, sir, but you can't get sick, you're an archangel".

With this, Gabriel sat up and looked at her, properly looked at her, trying to decipher whether she was another patient who had escaped. 'You could have religious psychosis bonding sessions', a voice that sounded suspiciously like Lucifer said inside his head, Gabriel snorted; who knew the devil could be funny. Great, he thought, now we have a patient raving about angels and another who rants about fairies. At least the woman who likes fairies didn't think he was one. "Muriel, go back to your cell. I'm not an archangel, I'm something, but angel's aren't real", he groaned, almost tempted to turn over again.

The four people in the room were quiet for a moment, three in stunned silence and one in oblivious relief. Just as Gabriel thought he was going to be granted some time alone to mull over what he'd just discovered, the woman's eyes turned to his with a wild glint, "So, one of the four most powerful beings in existence is hiding with his head in the sand along side the tainted Winchester, no less, whilst the apocalypse looms above us all?", she stalked forwards. "A celestial being like you hiding with the scum of the earth, the boy with the demon blood?", Gabriel started to bristle , but she continued to rant, "It's disgusting. You should have smote him on the spot, not got to know him", Muriel spat the last four words with as much venom as she could muster, and Gabriel'd had enough.

"Sam Winchester is worth more than a thousand of you. You call him disgusting? You don't know anything about him", he snarled. During his speech, Gabriel had thrown off his covers and stood up, his face not thirty centimetres away from hers as he hissed.

She didn't flinch. This was not the archangel she'd grown to admire and respect, this was a powerless disappointment. "So he's worth that much to you? A dirty, tainted piece of filth like that? You make a good pair. A broken disgrace and the devil's vessel", Muriel's face turned from spiteful to cruel, "in fact, that boy has done far more bad than good in his mayfly lifespan, maybe it's time I cut it short".

A cold shiver travelled down Gabriel's spine, these people suddenly didn't feel so illusional, they felt very, very real. "Don't you dare", Gabriel's voice was commanding and radiated power, but Muriel wasn't fooled. She sneered down at the smaller man in front of her, "just you stop me".  
Gabriel made to move forward and they were gone. A different, more familiar rustling announced a hallucination's arrival, "hate to say it, little bro, but those guys were the real deal".

"Shut up Lucifer", Gabriel growled, and started pacing his cell, doubt and uncertainty settling in, completely forgetting about his dream, knowing he wouldn't sleep that night.

•••••••

The night air outside the motel was cool and clear, and Sam could note out a few constellations in the night sky. He'd come out to clear his head. For some reason he couldn't stop obsessing over Gabriel's condition. He knew he couldn't do anything about it, as Gabriel was the only one who could fix himself, but worry and a restless desire to do something were an agitating combination.

He leant back against the cool brick wall, putting all his weight behind him, and stretched out his legs.

Dean was still being difficult.

He didn't know if it was because it was proving there was nothing he could do, and he was getting frustrated, or just pure dislike for the archangel they were trying to save. Sam didn't see what the problem was, this Gabriel was nothing like the first one, this Gabriel was kind and easy to talk to, and the one before was as detached as he could make himself, but there were similarities. Both Gabriel's seemed compassionate, but one's compassion was hidden beneath decades of pain, and the others was open and easily given.

Sam could help but draw parallels, and although he'd been tortured and lost Dean thousands of times, the trickster had been unnecessarily kind to him. It was obvious that helping people wasn't usually on Gabriel's agenda, neither was taking back his lessons, but for some reason, he'd helped Sam. The younger Winchester closed his eyes, and rested his head on the wall behind him; at least if his tension wouldn't let him sleep, he'd be able to enjoy the nighttime peace outside.

A soft fluttering of wings sounded to his right, and Sam smiled, not opening his eyes, "about time Cas! I've been praying for the last week, you won't believe what I've found". "Be quiet, Winchester", a very female voice spat, Sam leapt to the opposite side of where the voice was coming from, and an angel sword thudded into the wall in the exact spot Sam had been in moments before.

Sam's hand darted for the knife he kept in the back of his pants at the same time as the angel ripped her sword from its position, leaving jagged cracks in the brickwork in its wake. Muriel stalked towards the younger Winchester, knife held like a dagger, and for the fist time Sam noticed two other angels flanking the furious woman impassively. Sam wracked his brains for an explanation, and a sick feeling of worry curled in his belly; they must have found Gabriel.

"I swear, if you've done anything to him I'll kill you nice and slowly", he snarled, despite the fact that his silver knife feeling rather flimsy against a weapon of angels. Muriel just smiled nastily, "Oh honey, trust me, it's not Gabriel you should be worrying about. We were told not to kill him, you however, weren't included in that order", Sam lunged at her, silver knife set to stab. Muriel, however, wasn't just another monster. She easily sidestepped the lunge, pushing Sam so he lost his balance and toppled forward with his momentum.

Despite his breath rushing out of him with a sound similar to that of a dropped pillow, Sam was on his feet again within seconds, circling Muriel whilst keeping an eye on the other two angels behind her. This was starting to look really bad. Sam didn't think he'd be able to take Muriel on his own, especially only armed with a silver knife, and with two other angels in the equation, his best bet was looking to be making a quick getaway. Sam shot a quick look towards the motel door, it was too far for him to shout for his brother, plus he wasn't willing to risk both of them. This really wasn't looking good.

Again, Sam lunged towards the angel, stabbing and slashing, but every time Muriel just seemed to dance around the blade, it didn't nick her once, and Sam was quickly tiring. Sam's stamina was nothing to scoff at, but he was quickly tiring. She always seemed to be one step ahead of him, and he knew he couldn't keep this up much longer. Eventually, he stumbled back against the wall, panting quietly as he tried to think of a way past her guard. She hadn't even broken a sweat, and smirked as she twirled the silver blade around her hand.

It suddenly dawned on Sam that he was fighting a warrior of god, an angel like Castiel, who would be more battleweary than him, and know just as many tactics. He narrowed his eyes at her, trying to figure out her plan, and clenched his knife tightly when he realised. She was just wearing him out; waiting until he was exhausted before actually fighting him.

The other two angels just waited, looking bored as their superior cackled at the younger Winchester's situation. Sam decided to try and distract her, to try and buy himself a little time, "why are you doing this now? Apart from the obvious reason, won't your boss be pissed if you spoil his opponent's vessel?", he panted. Muriel just chuckled, a manic edge creeping into her voice, "screw Michael. I don't work for him, Raphael sends his regards. This is about angels rebelling and abandoning their posts, and it always seems to start or end with a Winchester", she laughed too loudly, "call it pest control".

Sam's eyes darted between the angel blade in her hand and the knife in his, trying to gage how quickly she'd react if he lunged, "doesn't that make you a bit of a hypocrite? If you're rebelling for a Winchester too?", he stalled. Muriel narrowed her eyes, "I'm a martyr", she hissed, "I'm sacrificing myself to remove the stain you cast on this planet. It is a sacrifice worth making". Sam realised his mistake in goading the angel as she started to close the gap between them, she stopped less than a foot's distance from his body. Sam had nowhere to go; he was trapped between a pissed off angel and a brick wall.

Muriel smiled nastily, "you can die knowing that Raphael still got Gabriel", and thrust the blade into Sam's gut.

Sam made a quiet, wounded sound, and tried to double over, but a cruel concrete hand on his shoulder stopped his movement. The younger Winchester could hear the steady plat, plat, plat of his blood dripping off the blade onto the Tarmac beneath them.

The pain was almost blinding, and Muriel just smirked and twisted the blade, coaxing a muffled whimper from the trapped man beneath her. Sam grit his teeth to stop any other noises, and only grunted as the blade was yanked out of his stomach. He dropped to the floor and curled in on himself, pressing a slick hand against the hole in his abdomen. He heard one last smug comment from Muriel, before breathing a sigh of relief at the telltale sound of them leaving.

Sam whimpered as he began to crawl the torturous distance from his puddle of blood to the motel door.

•••••••

"What do you mean he isn't coming in today?", Gabriel snarled, worry making him snap at his carer. Emily chuckled nervously, not used to the patient talking, let alone yelling at her. "He called in sick, and asked if I could cover his shift for today. The poor guy's been pulling doubles lately, so of course I said yes", her cheeks went slightly pink at the admission, and Gabriel noticed as she slightly stumbled over her lie. He glared at her through narrowed eyes; she had a crush on his friend! A nasty, curling feeling of jealousy and dislike shot through him, and he gritted his teeth.

"Sure", Gabriel growled, "What's wrong with him", Emily's eyes flicked to the right before settling on him again, "I'm not sure", another lie, Gabriel thought. His unamused look clearly conveyed his thoughts, because Emily shot a look over her shoulder before looking imploringly back at the patient.

"I'm only telling you this because you guys are close, so don't go spreading, 'Kay?", she whispered loudly. Gabriel placed a fake innocent smile over his face, and batted his eyelashes a little; sue him if he was abusing his good looks, they didn't call him a charmer for nothing.

Seemingly satisfied, Emily continued, "I heard from Susie who answered the phone from Sam that he got mugged last night. He's pretty beaten up", she said, exited at the prospect of spreading the gossip. She wasn't a bad person, but Gabriel couldn't help the dislike that spread through him as she spoke animatedly.

Emily continued her dramatic retelling of what she knew, apparently, three figures had jumped Sam outside the motel he'd been staying in, and he'd been left with a stab wound and serious blood loss. A sickening sensation of cold fear washed over Gabriel's body, a horrible feeling of guilt and doubt settling over him. What if those hallucinations hadn't been hallucinations? Lucifer had claimed it, but then again, wasn't the devil meant to lie? Plus, why should he trust a fickle creation of his own scrambled brain anyway. 

The reasons all rang hollow, and Gabriel was left unable to eat the breakfast Emily had left him long after she'd gone, and the cereal grew soggy quickly whilst he fretted. If he was right, then it was his fault that those things attacked Sam.

"Or you could just be getting crazier", Lucifer sang. To be honest, that was what he was most afraid of. Gabriel curled up on his bed, hating his inability to do anything, and tried to ignore the constant chattering in his head.

God, he missed Sam. 

•••••••

Dean peered nervously at his brother's bandages, "Jesus Sammy, that bitch got you good". Sam shot a glare back at him, "well, I'd like to see how you turned out in a fight against three angels armed with only a silver knife", he snarked, wincing at the pain in his belly. According to Dean, he'd been incredibly lucky; the knife had been inches away from piercing his stomach, and managed to only do the worst damage to his gallbladder, which, according to Dean, was fine because it wasn't important. Felt damn important, Sam grouched silently. Dean leant against the desk, "real question is, what do we do now? Raphael is one big fish and if he's after Gabriel, I don't know what we can do", he said seriously.

Sam glared up at him, "I'll tell you what we do. We stay here and do our damnedest to protect him that's what!", he hissed. Dean eyed the hand that was pressing a clean ace bandage against his brother's stomach, "like that? You can't even walk, let alone fight!".

Sam dropped his eyes, but continued anyway, "I'm not abandoning him to them! I don't even know if he's alive! For all I know, he's lying dead in his room right now!", the truth came out.

Truthfully, the reason he was so stressed out and on edge was because he was worried. Those angels had been going on about Gabriel the whole time they'd been there, and Sam couldn't help the churning worry at the thought of something happening to the powerless archangel whilst he wasn't there. Dean had forced him to call in sick, their argument about Sam's inability to walk meaning that he was in no shape to work (to which Sam tried to stand up to prove Dean wrong, and was forced to make a hasty retreat to the saggy motel bed), and he'd made up a story about getting mugged to explain the wound when he was well enough to work.

It bothered him that he couldn't ask without sounding suspicious, especially if something had happened to his patient. He needed to be able to see Gabriel if he was injured, and he knew if Sam was a suspect, that wouldn't be possible. Sam was in no doubt that if the angels had injured his patient, Gabriel would be confused and hurt. Sam knew better than anyone what a dangerous place that was. The knowledge could damage his fragile psychosis, and Sam hadn't worked so damn hard to fix him just for it to come crashing down in one night.

Sam came to the decision that he was going back to work tomorrow, injured or not. Screw Dean right back to hell.

•••••••

That day was the worst in Gabriel's short memory. He spent it fretting, not eating, and only talking if he was asking his carers if they knew about any news on Sam's condition. He was scared that Sam wouldn't be able to come back, and even spending only a day with the endless chatter of voices when he was used to periodic silence punctuated with the blissful silence of his carer was hell for him.

Gabriel could hear Emily and her friends talking about him and Sam, the wavelength of their conversation spanning from hushed whispers about his 'sudden and unexplainable deterioration', to sympathetic crooning over Sam's accident, and it was just winding Gabriel up tighter and tighter. That night, he couldn't sleep because of the unending worry over Sam.

Needless to say, Gabriel felt worse than he had in a long time when the sun crept up his wall the next morning. The cruel combination of Lucifer's doubtplanting whispers and his own internal downward spiral, had left him with worry gnawing at his heart over Sam Winchester's condition. With Lucifer's incessant chattering about the 'angels' from two nights ago, Gabriel couldn't help but feel as if he was missing something obvious. The word, 'archangel', stuck with him, echoing around his head in a voice suspiciously like Michael's.

Gabriel stopped that train of thought where it stood. He did not need to add another bullet point to his religious psychosis file. That Hester woman was probably just another crazy who got out of her cell, he thought. Yeah, one who vanished into thin air along with two others.

Gabriel felt like he was going crazier.

The door opened, and Gabriel raised his head slowly, expecting to see Emily armed with an apologetic smile and a tray with his breakfast. He did a doubletake as he realised the person was too tall, too attractive and far too male to be his replacement carer.

"Sam?! What are you doing here?", Gabriel jumped to his feet and ran over to the man leaning heavily on the doorframe to Gabriel's room, "you should be in hospital!", he yelped, glancing down at Sam's hand, which he'd got clenched over what Gabriel assumed was the stab wound. Sam smiled apologetically, and tried to stand a little straighter, "no, I'm alright", he glanced over Gabriel's body and breathed a sigh of relief, before searching hazel eyes caught the shorter man's. "You okay, too? I mean, nothing happened whilst I was gone, right?". 

Gabriel's eyebrows shot up, "What? Me?", he squeaked, "are you joking? You're the one with the stab wound!", Sam huffed another relieved sigh, but that wasn't enough for the shorter man. "Why would you worry about little old me locked in a room where the most dangerous thing is my plastic cutlery?", he asked suspiciously. Sam started guiltily; he hadn't thought that far ahead. His thoughts had been so focused on the safety of a certain carameleyed blonde that he hadn't even considered what to do if Gabriel was okay. He shrugged quickly, scrunching his face up in that adorable way he does when he was lying, then looked away quickly whilst muttering, "no reason", he said too quickly, "just worried".

If Gabriel wasn't focused on how damn sure he was that his best friend was lying to him, he would wonder how he knew that little character flaw the younger Winchester had developed when caught out lying. 

Instead, he narrowed his eyes, and settled for the next best assurance, "Prove it", he glared at his carer's abdomen, "show me the wound, and then I'll know your okay". Sam flushed slightly, "No!", he said too quickly, "I'm pretty sure I'll be breaking an absolute bucketload of rules if I strip in a patients room", Gabriel frowned, "If I don't make sure your okay, I'm pretty confident I'm going to have another mental break. And then you'll be to blame", he growled seriously. Sam weighed up his options. Finally, he sighed, and began to unbutton his shirt from the top downwards.

As soon as the shirt was open, Gabriel's mouth ran dry as he eyed the tanned expanse of skin in front of him. He was so committing this to memory, Jesus, those abs were downright sinful. A startling white patch caught his eye, Sam noticed, and carefully pulled the bandage off, uncovering the wound.

Gabriel leant in, placing a hand on Sam stomach as he squinted at what was underneath the bandage. Sam spluttered, and a redhot blush burned across his cheeks and up to the tips of his ears. Luckily, Gabriel was too focused on his completely platonic task to notice. Why was this bothering him? Sam thought, Gabriel clearly only wanted a look at the wound, and they didn't exactly have personal space issues with the way the former archangel had been anchored onto his hand since they'd figured out how to silence the angel radio, so why was this making his heart thump in his chest and his palms go clammy?

Gabriel didn't seem to notice, but he let out a pained hiss as his eyes found the jaggedly stitchedup stab wound in the younger Winchester's stomach. The blonde gently ran a finger over the taught skin, wincing apologetically when Sam flinched at the contact, "this doesn't look like it went to a hospital", Gabriel said quietly. Sam didn't meet his eyes, "me and my brother, we, ah, have medical experience", he muttered, but the lie sounded weak even to him. Luckily, the blonde didn't press the issue.

Gabriel huffed and sat back against the headboard, managing to coerce the corners of his lips upwards slightly at the thought of Sam being okay. "Damn", he breathed quietly, meeting Sam's eyes, "you don't know just how worried I was. I've barely slept for two nights". 

"Two nights? I only called in yesterday morning", Sam frowned. Gabriel's eyes widened slightly, before he caught himself, "uh, about that. I had some weirdass dreamsslashhallucinations during the short couple of hours sleep I caught the night before last", he chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the material of his pants between his fingers to distract himself, "I was so freaked because I dreamt myself up a couple of hallucinations that started threatening you once I'd told them you were here", he paused, and the silence dragged on, as "That's the thing, I think I'm going more crazy, Sammy". Gabriel forced the words out, "God, there's so much I need to tell you. So much is happening in a such a short amount of time, I can barely keep up".

Sam just watched silently as the former archangel continued, "you know the whole religious psychosis thing I've got going?", he laughed, and the sound bounced too loud off the walls, "it's getting worse. At first, I thought the hallucinations were just that, but as they spoke, I started to think they were real. That's the thing, Sammy, I always knew I was crazy, but I could separate crazy from reality, all the hallucinations, they had tells, you know?", the words fell out of Gabriel's mouth. Sam reached out and placed his hand on Gabriel's arm, hoping that maybe the silence in his head would help him calm down. He wanted to take his hand, why, Sam didn't want to think about, but settled on his arm.

The archangel took a deep breath, and sent Sam a grateful smile for his efforts. "Go on", Sam coaxed, and Gabriel took another deep breath, "but the ones last night, they had the tells, but they were different. It felt like I was dreaming, Sam, but what scares me is that", Gabriel paused and looked up uncomfortably from under his lashes, "I never woke up".

Sam used the hand his was resting his head on to rub the underside of his chin whilst he thought. Considering what that angel said whilst it was trying to shank him, he wouldn't be surprised if they had visited the unsuspecting archangel before him. That was what he'd been afraid of, at this point, the big reveal could go two ways; Gabriel could accept it with a nice "Ikindofsuspecteditanyway", or he could completely flip. Sam just hoped the development from homocidal trickster to homocidal archangel with serious family issues wasn't going to be too drastic.

Damn, who was he kidding. Gabe was definitely going to flip.

Sam now needed to know if the angels had screwed everything up or not, "what did they say?", he asked quietly. Gabriel shrugged selfloathingly, "just a load of crap about how I was an archangel, and how it was so terribly awful that I was friends with you", he snorted, "As if I would let my pickled melon screw up the only good thing in my life", he muttered darkly.

Sam cursed silently, that wasn't good. He couldn't leave Gabriel in the dark now; if the angels came back he would be helpless and at a serious disadvantage. He took a deep breath, this was going to take a hell of a lot of explaining. 

"Gabriel, there's something I haven't told you yet", Gabriel's head flicked up as he spoke, brow creasing slightly. Damn, Sam thought, this was far harder than he thought it was going to be, "this is going to sound crazy. More crazy than the whole trickster thing, but it's all true, okay?". Gabriel just nodded, somehow knowing that this was a big thing, and Sam steeled himself to finally tell him, he just hoped from heaven to hell and back that Gabriel didn't back off and think Sam was the crazy one.

"Gabriel, you're an archangel".

**Author's Note:**

> A.N. To all of you receiving multiple update emails, I apologize for the inconvenience, my laptop was spazzing out, but all is well now! It has been fixed, and this won't happen again. Thanks!


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